2023-2024 Presidential, senate, house, state and city election thread

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Biden campaign says Trump echoed Hitler with use of word 'vermin'

Source: Reuters

Nov 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's 2024 re-election team on Monday said former President Donald Trump had embraced the language of Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler by using the word "vermin" to refer to his political enemies.

Trump told a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday he would "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections," repeating his false claim that fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election.

His comments, made on the Veterans Day holiday honoring military veterans, drew criticism online, with some historians saying his language mirrored that of autocrats who have sought to dehumanize their foes.

"On a weekend when most Americans were honoring our nation's heroes, Donald Trump parroted the autocratic language of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini – two dictators many U.S. veterans gave their lives fighting," Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden- ... 023-11-13/

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Nikki Haley Ripped for 'Fascist' Proposal to Outlaw Anonymity on Social Media
by Alex Henderson
November 15, 2023

Introduction:

(Alternet) During a Tuesday, November 14 appearance on Fox News, 2024 GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley made a proposal that has been drawing a great deal of vehement criticism online: abolishing anonymous social media accounts.

The former South Carolina governor and ex-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations described anonymous social media accounts as a "national security threat" and proposed that platforms like X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook be required to verify the identities of all users.

"When I get into office," Haley told Fox News, "the first thing we have to do — social media companies, they have to show America their algorithm. Let us see why they're pushing what they're pushing."

Haley argued that her proposal, if carried out, would promote greater "civility" online. But her critics slammed it as a recipe for authoritarianism.

Additional extract:

DeSantis tweeted, "You know who were anonymous writers back in the day? Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison when they wrote the Federalist Papers. They were not 'national security threats,' nor are the many conservative Americans across the country who exercise their Constitutional right to voice their opinions without fear of being harassed or canceled by the school they go to or the company they work for. Haley's proposal to ban anonymous speech online — similar to what China recently did — is dangerous and unconstitutional."

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/nikki-haley-d ... 66273893/

caltrek’s comment: It is a little unclear to me whether Haley is proposing that anonymous speech be totally banned, or that she is merely proposing that platforms verify the identities of users without necessarily sharing those identities with other users and the general public. If she is advocating outright banning, then I would agree with Desantis. As pointed out in the linked article, DeSantis is highly hypocritical on this issue as he has, in other ways, been quite contemptuous of freedom of speech. Perhaps he reconciles his belief by holding that freedom of speech should only be enjoyed by “conservatives”?

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Judge allows Trump on Michigan primary ballot as critics try to bar him

Source: Washington Post

A judge on Tuesday ruled Donald Trump can appear on the primary ballot in Michigan, delivering the latest setback to those who contend Trump sparked an insurrection Jan. 6, 2021, and is barred from running for president again as a result.

An appeal is expected and could ultimately be resolved by the Michigan Supreme Court or U.S. Supreme Court. The case mirrors those in other states that contend Trump can’t run because of a provision of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that bars officials from holding office if they engage in insurrection.

State Judge James Robert Redford wrote that courts don’t have the authority to determine whether someone is eligible to run for office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. In addition, Redford ruled that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) does not have the authority under state law to remove candidates from the ballot based on that provision.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... urrection/

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YouGov/Economist: Trump +38
Trump 57%
DeSantis 19%
Haley 9%
Ramaswamy 4%
Scott 3%
Christie 0%
Hutchinson 0%
Burgum 0%

https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/d ... 1diQvj.pdf

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New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy Enters Senate Race to Replace Menendez
by Matt Friedman
November 15, 2023
Introduction:

(Politico) New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, who has taken an active role in helping govern the state, is running in the 2024 Democratic U.S. Senate primary to replace the indicted Sen. Bob Menendez.

The 58-year-old former Republican is the second major Democratic figure to declare her candidacy, following Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). But she instantly becomes the frontrunner thanks not just to her husband’s position as governor but her long list of contacts with party leaders, for whom she’s spent the last six years as a prolific fundraiser.

Murphy did not name Menendez specifically, but she included his image in part of her video launch decrying Capitol politics (use link below quote box to reach her video).

“Right now Washington is filled with too many people more interested in getting rich or getting on camera than getting things done for you,” she said.
Menendez, who’s facing extensive federal charges of bribery and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government, has not said whether he plans to seek reelection but hinted at it Friday, saying in a statement that he is “used to tough fights and next year won’t be any different.” Menendez, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, also took a vague swipe at Tammy Murphy last month, saying that if she runs “she’ll have to deal with a lot of baggage.”

Read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/ ... 00127045

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New polling shows President Biden's handling of the Israeli-Hamas war is supported by 90% of pro-Israeli young Democrats

Pro-Israeli perhaps, but what about youth who are not "pro-Israeli"?

‘He Lost Our Votes’: How Biden’s Israel Policy Is Costing Him Dearly in This Critical Swing State
by Tanvi Misra
November 11, 2023

Introduction:

(Politico) FARMINGTON HILLS, Michigan — It’s well past 9 p.m. on a Wednesday in late October. Evening prayers have long concluded, but a few congregants lag behind to talk. Outside the Farmington Hills Community Mosque, rain batters the concrete. Inside, the mosque’s brightly lit conference room is heavy with grief and exhaustion.

Emad Shehada, a 47-year-old bespectacled physician, sits at a conference table, hands clasped tightly in front of him, recounting the last few days. The Saturday before, an airstrike killed his cousin, a dentist in Gaza, along with the cousin’s daughter and two adult sons. And on Monday, another four cousins were killed. Two of them were women in their 20s, one of whom was pregnant with her first child; two others were elementary-age children. And two hours before Shehada arrived at the mosque, his sister called from Gaza in distress. She told him that the house next door had been bombed and 10 people were dead — some of them relatives on their father’s side.

“My sister said that she can smell the blood and the burning flesh from her home,” Shehada says.

The same day as Shedada and other congregants gathered at the mosque, President Joe Biden cast doubt on the swiftly increasing civilian death toll tallied by the Gaza Health Ministry, which included over 2,500 children at that point. (The ministry, which is located in the Hamas-controlled strip, is overseen by the Palestinian Authority from the occupied West Bank, and the only official source in the strip that Israel has closed off to journalists and humanitarian appraisers. Researchers and the UN and have found it to be largely accurate.)

Additional Extract:

None of this is sitting well with the citizens of Dearborn, home to the nation’s largest enclave of Arab Americans.

Read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... 00125320

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The GOP Presidential Debate Reveals a Brutal Reality About Republican Foreign Policy
by Paul Musgrave
November 9, 2023

Introduction:

(Politico) The latest Republican presidential debate showed clear divisions but also one deep truth: The leading figures in the GOP have moved firmly and fully past a commitment to cooperation at home with Democrats or abroad with allies and antagonists.

One set of presidential aspirants argue for a starkly militarist, unilateral form of engagement with the world. The other set sees the United States as needing to retreat, at a minimum to deal with China and at a maximum to turn the country into a fortress. Notably, all of them adopted belligerent rhetoric with calls sprinkled in to “finish the job” against Hamas, “take out” the Mexican cartels and “cut off the head of the snake” (Iran). It’s an approach that also reflects the sentiment of GOP voters. A recent CBS/YouGov poll showed that most Republicans believe it’s more important for the United States to be feared than loved.

Ultimately both the hawks and the isolationists can reasonably claim to represent the party’s true mantle. And history shows that under the right circumstances, the side that prevails in these party debates could, if they win next November, launch U.S. foreign policy on a trajectory that will endure for a generation.

Of course, the likeliest Republican standard-bearer for 2024 remains former President Donald Trump, who skipped this debate like all the others. But his views obviously hovered over the stage. What’s more, by giving even second-tier candidates a chance to air their conflicts, these exchanges tell us a lot about the range of divisions in the party, as well as their commonality.

Wednesday’s debate did show broad areas of agreement. Despite grumbling in the more extreme flank of the party, support for Israel against Hamas remains the hegemonic position in the GOP; only Vivek Ramaswamy opposed further U.S. aid even as he joined other contenders in offering a bellicose message to Israel that it should “smoke those terrorists.” Similarly, even some candidates’ attacks on each other highlighted a deeper consensus, as when former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused each other of being too nice to China.

Read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... 00126445

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DeSantis falls to 5th place in latest Monmouth University/WashPost NH poll

When asked who they would vote for in the January Republican presidential primary, 46% of potential voters choose Trump. The rest of the field trails far behind, including Nikki Haley (18%), Chris Christie (11%), Vivek Ramaswamy (8%), and Ron DeSantis (7%).

https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-instit ... nh_111723/

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