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Democrats routinely and correctly warn the public that the Trump wing of the Republican Party poses an existential threat to American democracy. It may be surprising then to learn that theyre also spending tremendous sums of money quietly boosting Trumps picks in Republican primaries out of the hope that theyll be easier to beat in the general election. No matter the motive, its a reckless gamble, and it undermines the credibility of the partys message that its base must mobilize against burgeoning authoritarianism.

The DCCCs ad buy is a fantastic deal for Gibbs. For the Democrats, its playing with fire.

According to Politico, Democratic-aligned groups are spending tens of millions of dollars intervening in Republican primaries to help more extreme candidates win and to position them to run against Democrats. And the latest and most surprising example of this arose after an Axios report that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the official campaign arm of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, is spending close to half a million dollars on an ad campaign in Michigans third district to help the Trump-backed candidate, John Gibbs, in his bid to oust Republican incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer in the upcoming primary.

The advertisement masquerades as an attack ad, but it explicitly drives home Gibbs own messaging by linking him to Trump and indicating that hell continue to back Trumps policy agenda in Washington all without landing any substantive criticisms other than to label him too conservative (not a knock against a Republican in a primary). Its hundreds of thousands of dollars of free advertising for Gibbs in the final sprint before the primary next week.

Gibbs is not just an old-school Republican dipping his toes in Trumpy rhetoric to garner extra votes. Hes a Trump die-hard with the exact kinds of background Democrats consider dangerous: He worked in the Trump administration, won Trumps endorsement, backs Trumps 2020 disinformation, and has in the past promoted, according to CNN, an unfounded conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta took part in a Satanic ritual. Hes defended his hardline anti-abortion position, which opposes exceptions for incest and rape, by saying, There are many great Americans all around the country who were actually conceived from rape."

Gibbs target in the primary, Meijer, is in fact one of just 10 Republican members of the House who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection one of those rare Republicans willing to push back against the party's slide toward strongman politics. But with Gibbs, the theory goes, Democrats will have a far better chance of winning in a polarized election.

The DCCCs ad buy is a fantastic deal for Gibbs. But for the Democrats, its playing with fire.

In a best-case scenario under this strategy, Gibbs, with the aid of the Democrats, wins the Republican primary and then loses the general election to the Democratic candidate, Hillary Scholten, in a race that she might have otherwise lost to Meijer. One reason that the DCCC may feel emboldened to use this tactic is that recent redistricting has made Michigans third district significantly more Democratic, turning a once deeply red district to a toss-up race, and potentially making Gibbs politics less competitive in a general election.

But even under this best-case scenario, there is a real cost involved: Dems help Gibbs win a primary, handing Trump another endorsement win and signaling to Republican observers in Michigan that the political winds favor right-wing extremism over Meijer-style moderation. It would also make it more likely that more candidates position themselves in the Trump vein in the 2024 Republican primaries, and also make Republicans nationwide more likely to view maverick pro-democracy votes, like Meijers impeachment vote, as a career killer.

Now in a worst-case scenario, Gibbs wins the primary and the general election, and ends up in Washington next year. This scenario isnt that far-fetched if Republican candidates were felled by promoting laughable conspiracy theories or making offensive remarks, then Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wouldnt have become one of the most high-profile Republicans in Congress in the last couple of years. And keep in mind that between inflation, crime rates, and a general historical disadvantage for incumbent parties in midterm elections, Republicans are poised for a wave election, meaning that even if Gibbs extremism is a turnoff for some Republicans, exceptionally high Republican turnout could be enough to help him win anyway.

This is all to say nothing of the simple fact that the Democrats' money could otherwise be spent directly helping vulnerable Democrats ahead of a potential November bloodbath.

Michigans third district isnt the only place where this risky strategy is being implemented. But the DCCCs intervention in the Meijer race is particularly infuriating to some House Democrats, who, as Politico notes, pay membership dues to the DCCC, and assume it reflects leadership attitudes about political strategy.

Many of them are concerned that the Democrats cant back GOP extremists and say that they pose an existential threat to democracy at the same time. Many of us are facing death threats over our efforts to tell the truth about Jan. 6. To have people boosting candidates telling the very kinds of lies that caused Jan. 6 and continues to put our democracy in danger, is just mind-blowing, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. told Politico. Shes right.

Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Politico, and he has also been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation and elsewhere.

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Democrats boosting John Gibbs over Peter Meijer is part of a reckless ad strategy - MSNBC

Absentee ballot materials bundled with rubber bands on a table in the former Republican town clerks office waiting for the Democratic party chair to pick them up.

Testimony by a state election investigator that the former town clerk was involved in a ballot fraud scheme.

A still pending investigation of the clerk.

At State Superior Court in Stamford Wednesday, the office of the former town clerk appeared to be on trial as much as the one-time Democratic Party chair charged with forgery and filing false statements in absentee balloting 28 Class D felonies in all.

In the third day of the trial of John Mallozzi, who chaired the Stamford Democratic City Committee and was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, Judge Kevin Randolph interjected testimony with questions to help untangle the confusing story of how absentee ballots were handled during Stamfords 2015 municipal election.

Mallozzi requested a bench trial, so it will be Randolph who will render a verdict after the testimony and evidence are presented. The trial is expected to end Friday.

The judge had a number of questions for Diane Pesiri, who has worked in the Stamford town clerks office for 22 years.

Pesiri, called as a witness by Assistant States Attorney Laurence Tamaccio, testified that the then-town clerk, Donna Loglisci, a Republican, gave her absentee ballot applications to get ready and that John Mallozzi would pick them up. I processed them and put a rubber band around them and put them on a table in Donnas office.

Mallozzis attorney, Stephan Seeger, questioned how Mallozzis initials, JM, got on absentee ballot materials he is charged with forging.

Pesiri testified that she wrote JM on ballot materials at Logliscis instruction.

The judge wanted clarity.

Donna Loglisci told you Mr. Mallozzi would pick them up? Randolph asked Pesiri.

Yes, Pesiri replied.

You put the initials on the documents before you saw Mr. Mallozzi collect them? the judge asked.

Yes. I was told he would pick them up. Thats why I put his initials there, Pesiri said.

She also testified that she saw Mallozzi pick up actual absentee ballots, not just applications for ballots. Asked whether she ever saw Mallozzi return completed ballots to the town clerks office, Pesiri said, If he brought them back, he would give them to Donna Loglisci.

Seeger extensively cross-examined another witness for the state, Scott Branfuhr, an investigator with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. Branfuhr testified that the commission, which began the investigation, referred the case to the states attorney after it uncovered evidence of several felonies involving Mallozzi.

Seeger grilled Branfuhr about a report Branfuhr prepared for the SEEC when he concluded his investigation.

Didnt you call it a scheme? Seeger asked.

I believe so, Branfuhr replied.

Two people are involved in a scheme, right? You cant do it with one person? Seeger asked.

No, Branfuhr replied.

Seeger asked why Branfuhr made a judgment that, in a plot involving Mallozzi and Loglisci, only Mallozzi was charged.

Isnt your job all about ensuring election integrity? Wasnt Donna Loglisci responsible for the absentee ballot process? Seeger asked.

Yes, Branfuhr said.

Branfuhr said the SEEC legal staff thought Loglisci should be charged with official negligence and fraud because she involved herself in a scheme to accept bogus absentee ballot applications and ballot sets.

Seeger asked, You knew Donna Loglisci broke the law, correct?

Yes, Branfuhr said.

Seeger asked whether Loglisci was not referred to the states attorney because she had agreed to become a witness against Mallozzi.

She cooperated to a certain degree, Branfuhr said. She neglected to tell us there was a quid pro quo.

A quid pro quo would mean Loglisci expected something from Mallozzi in return for giving him the ballots. Branfuhr did not explain what it was, and Seeger didnt ask.

Seeger did ask whether the SEEC investigation will continue. Branfuhr said the commission suspends its investigation while the state is bringing a case.

Do you still have the authority to go after Donna Loglisci? Seeger asked.

Yes, Branfuhr said.

Is that what the commission intends to do? Seeger asked.

That is what the commission intends to do, Branfuhr said.

Seeger has said that he and his client hope the case will publicize the need for more oversight of the absentee ballot system in Connecticut, and that procedures will be tightened to increase election integrity.

The case came to light when a Stamford man was told at his polling place that he could not vote because hed already voted by absentee ballot.

It turned out that a ballot had been taken out in the mans name without his knowledge. Investigators said they traced it to Mallozzi, and later found 13 other ballots that appeared to be forged.

Mallozzi is charged with 14 counts each of forgery in the second degree and filing false statements in absentee balloting. Class D felonies are punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 per count.

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Court Puts Actions of Former Republican Town Clerk in Spotlight at Trial of Democratic Boss - CT Examiner

Days after the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion, Michigans Republican candidates for governor were asked if it was also time to roll back constitutional protections for gay rights.

None of the five candidates came to the defense of same-sex marriage.

They need to revisit it all, one candidate, Garrett Soldano, said at the debate, in Warren, Mich.

Michigans constitution, said another candidate, Ralph Rebandt, says that for the betterment of society, marriage is between a man and a woman.

Since the Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade, anti-gay rhetoric and calls to roll back established L.G.B.T.Q. protections have grown bolder. And while Republicans in Congress appear deeply divided about same-sex marriage nearly 50 House Republicans on Tuesday joined Democrats in supporting a bill that would recognize same-sex marriages at the federal level many Republican officials and candidates across the country have made attacking gay and transgender rights a party norm this midterm season.

In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton said after the Roe reversal that he would be willing and able to defend at the Supreme Court any law criminalizing sodomy enacted by the Legislature. Before that, the Republican Party of Texas adopted a platform that calls homosexuality an abnormal lifestyle choice.

In Utah, the Republican president of the State Senate, Stuart Adams, said he would support his states joining with others to press the Supreme Court to reverse the right of same-sex couples to wed. In Arizona, Kari Lake, a candidate for governor endorsed by Donald J. Trump, affirmed in a June 29 debate her support for a bill barring children from drag shows the latest target of supercharged rhetoric on the right.

And in Michigans governors race, Mr. Soldano released an ad belittling the use of specific pronouns by those who do not conform to traditional gender roles (My pronouns: Conservative/Patriot) and accusing the woke groomer mafia of wanting to indoctrinate children.

Some Democrats and advocates for L.G.B.T.Q. communities say the Republican attacks have deepened their concerns that the overturning of Roe could undermine other cases built on the same legal foundation the right to privacy provided in the Fourteenth Amendment and lead to increases in hate crimes as well as suicides of L.G.B.T.Q. youth.

The state of the midterms. We are now over halfway through this years midterm primary season, and some key ideas and questions have begun to emerge from the results. Heres a look at what weve learned so far:

The dominoes have started to fall, and they wont just stop at one, said Attorney General Dana Nessel of Michigan, a Democrat who was the first openly gay person elected to statewide office there. People should see the connection between reproductive rights, L.G.B.T.Q. rights, womens rights, interracial marriage these things are all connected legally.

This year, Republican-led states have already passed numerous restrictions on transgender young people and on school discussions of sexual orientation and gender.

In June, Louisiana became the 18th state, all with G.O.P.-led legislatures, to ban transgender students from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity. Laws to prohibit transitioning medical treatments to people under 18, such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries which advocates call gender-affirming care have been enacted by four states. And after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a law in March banning classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, more than a dozen other states moved to imitate it.

In all, over 300 bills to restrict L.G.B.T.Q. rights have been introduced this year in 23 states, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the nations largest L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization.

The bills under consideration focus not on same-sex marriage but on transgender youth, on restricting school curriculums and on allowing groups to refuse services to L.G.B.T.Q. people based on religious faith. Most of the measures have no chance of passage because of opposition from Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Still, the Human Rights Campaign had characterized 2021 as the worst year in recent history for anti-L.G.B.T.Q. laws after states passed seven measures banning transgender athletes from sports teams that match their gender identity. So far in 2022, those numbers are already higher.

Officials and television commentators on the right have accused opponents of some of those new restrictions of seeking to sexualize or groom children. Grooming refers to the tactics used by sexual predators to manipulate their victims, but it has become deployed widely on the right to brand gay and transgender people as child molesters, evoking an earlier era of homophobia.

July 21, 2022, 7:00 p.m. ET

Some conservative advocacy groups that poured resources into transgender restrictions insist that they are not focused on challenging the 2015 Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. But many L.G.B.T.Q. advocates say they believe their hard-won rights are under attack.

The far right is emboldened in a way they have not been in five decades, said State Representative Daniel Hernandez Jr. of Arizona, a Democrat and a co-founder of the Legislatures L.G.B.T.Q. caucus. In addition to trying to create even more restrictions on abortion, they are going after the L.G.B.T.Q. community even more.

Republicans say the laws focused on transgender youth are not transphobic as the left sees them but protect girls sports and put the brakes on irreversible medical treatments.

They said the issues have the power to peel away centrist voters, who polling shows are less committed to transgender rights than to same-sex marriage. A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey in May found 55 percent of Americans oppose letting transgender girls compete on girls high school teams. In a Gallup poll last year, 51 percent of Americans said changing ones gender is morally wrong.

I believe these are enormous issues for swing voters and moderates, said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, a group that opposes civil rights protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people and plans to spend up to $12 million on ads before November.

One of the groups ads goes after Representative Peter Meijer, a Michigan Republican facing a primary challenge next month, for co-sponsoring a House bill that pairs anti-discrimination protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people with exemptions for religious groups. Saying the bill would put men in girls locker rooms, the ad asks, Would you trust Meijer with your daughter?

By contrast, Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, said hate has no place in the state after he vetoed an anti-transgender sports bill. Had it become law, he said, the ban would have a devastating impact on a vulnerable population already at greater risk of bullying and depression.

A 2022 survey by the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group, found that nearly one in five transgender or gender-nonconforming young people had attempted suicide in the past year. L.G.B.T.Q. youth who feel accepted in their schools and community reported lower rates of suicide attempts.

The surge in transgender restrictions reflects a reversal of fortune for social conservatives from just a few years ago, when a focus on bathroom bills produced a backlash. A North Carolina law passed in 2016 requiring people to use public restrooms matching their birth gender contributed to the defeat of the Republican governor who signed it.

It made a lot of folks wary of going after transgender rights, said Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist for the A.C.L.U. who is transgender.

But that changed with the focus on sports teams and transitioning medicine for minors, she said.

On the right, the transgender restrictions have been pushed by advocacy groups that have long opposed L.G.B.T.Q. rights and in some cases consulted in the drafting of legislation. And on the left, the wave of legislation has been used by liberal organizations to mobilize their base, fund-raise and help turn out voters in midterm primaries in a hostile national political climate for Democrats.

In Arizona, where Republicans control the Legislature and the governors office, a law enacted this year bars trans girls from competing on sports teams aligned with their gender and on transitioning surgery for people under 18.

My colleagues on the right have spent more time demonizing me and the L.G.B.T.Q. community than Ive ever seen, said Mr. Hernandez, the state representative, who is running in the Democratic primary for Congress on Aug. 2 in a Tucson-area seat.

In the Arizona primary for governor, Ms. Lake, the Trump-endorsed candidate who is leading in some polls, seized on a recent uproar over drag performers in response to a viral video of children at a Dallas drag show to demonstrate her sharp shift to the right.

They kicked God out of schools and welcomed the Drag Queens, Ms. Lake said in a tweet last month. They took down our Flag and replaced it with a rainbow. And Republican leaders in the Arizona Legislature, denouncing sexual perversion, called for a law barring children from drag shows.

But a drag performer in Phoenix, Rick Stevens, accused Ms. Lake, who he said had been a friend for years, of hypocrisy. Ive performed for Karis birthday, Ive performed in her home (with children present) and Ive performed for her at some of the seediest bars in Phoenix, he wrote on Instagram.

Mr. Stevens, who goes by the stage name Barbra Seville, posted photos of the two of them together one with Ms. Lake next to him while he is dressed in drag, and another when he is in drag and wearing Halloween-style skull makeup while she poses alongside him dressed as Elvis.

In a debate, Ms. Lake insisted Mr. Stevens was lying about performing at her home and her campaign threatened to sue him for defamation.

In Michigan, meanwhile, Ms. Nessel, the Democratic attorney general, joked at a civil rights conference in June that drag queens make everything better, and added, A drag queen for every school. In response, Tudor Dixon, a Republican candidate for governor, called this month for legislation letting parents sue school districts that host drag shows, despite there being no evidence that a district had ever done so.

Were taking the first step today to protecting children, Ms. Dixon said.

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Republicans Sharpen Post-Roe Attacks on L.G.B.T.Q. Rights - The New York Times

When Joe Manchin announced an abrupt end to Senate negotiations over major climate legislation last week, activists and even fellow Democrats expressed outrage against the West Virginia lawmaker. Manchin was attacked as a modern-day villain who had delivered nothing short of a death sentence to a rapidly heating planet.

Some Democratic leaders, however, including Joe Biden, have since attempted to redirect that anger toward congressional Republicans instead.

Not a single Republican in Congress stepped up to support my climate plan. Not one, Biden said, speaking at a coal turned wind power plant in Massachusetts on Wednesday. So let me be clear: climate change is an emergency.

Although congressional Republicans have refused to embrace Bidens policy ideas, the party has largely abandoned its past climate denialism. But climate experts and activists say the ideas Republicans have proposed are insufficient or misguided and fail to address the magnitude and urgency of this crisis.

Republicans have not generally been viewed as champions when it comes to combating the climate crisis at the federal level. Donald Trump famously withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement, and his administration rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules during his presidency, eliminating important regulations for the fossil fuel industry.

More recently, the conservative-dominated supreme court handed down a decision, in West Virginia v the Environmental Protection Agency, that will severely hamper that government agencys ability to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

There have, however, been some modest signs of change among Republicans when it comes to climate policy. While it was once quite common to hear Republican lawmakers reject the very idea of climate change, many members of the party are now at least willing to discuss the issue.

I think theres been a really significant narrative shift over the last five years, said Quill Robinson, vice-president of government affairs for the American Conservation Coalition, a right-leaning environmental advocacy group. A lot of elected Republicans and also the broader conservative movement is a lot more comfortable, willing and honestly interested in engaging on this issue of climate change.

Signs of that change are visible in Congress. Last year, Republican congressman John Curtis announced the formation of the Conservative Climate Caucus, which counts more than 70 Republicans as members.

The House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, has released his own climate platform. The proposal, unveiled last month, outlines how Republicans would work to address environmental and energy issues if they regain control of the House, as they are expected to do after the midterm elections this November.

Critics say McCarthys platform is a perfect example of Republicans failure to grasp the enormity of the climate crisis. The plan calls for increasing domestic fossil fuel production and boosting exports of US natural gas. In the past several months, Republicans demands to boost US oil production have grown louder, as the war in Ukraine drives gas prices to record highs.

Environmental experts have said that global reliance on fossil fuels needs to be drastically reduced in order to substantially cut greenhouse gas emissions and avoid disastrous climate breakdown. Republicans proposals threaten to accelerate this looming calamity, Democrats argue.

This House Republican proposal simply recycles old, bad ideas that amount to little more than handouts to oil companies, Democrat Frank Pallone, chair of the House energy and commerce committee, said last month. It is a stunning display of insincerity to admit climate change is a problem but to propose policies that make it worse.

Republicans have also called for taking additional steps to protect American wildlife, but climate activists have again criticized those proposals as too incremental to meet the moment. In contrast, the Biden administration has set a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

Kidus Girma, a spokesperson for the youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement, said even Bidens policy objectives fall far short of the changes necessary to help protect the planet.

We fundamentally dont have that timeline, Girma said of Republicans incremental approach. Emissions cut by 2030 is incrementalism in itself. So I dont know how much more incremental we could get.

Robinson argued that Democrats failure to pass Build Back Better and the supreme courts decision to limit the EPAs regulatory power demonstrate the urgent need for bipartisan compromise on this issue even if the end product falls short of what climate activists have demanded.

You cant rely on nine justices of the supreme court, one man in the White House, and one single party in Congress to pass durable, lasting climate policy, Robinson said. This has to be done on a bipartisan basis in Congress.

Excerpt from:
No Republican senator supported a climate plan where is the party on the issue? - The Guardian US

The House January 6 committee on Thursday played Capitol security footage which showed the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley, who famously raised a fist to protesters outside, running for his safety once those protesters breached the building. It prompted a flurry of online memes ridiculing Hawley fleeing from the very people he had earlier encouraged.

Presenting the committees case, the Virginia Democrat Elaine Luria showed pictures of House members and senators leaving their chambers.

She said: Senator Josh Hawley also had to flee.

Earlier that afternoon before the joint session [of Congress] started, he walked along the east front of the Capitol.

As you can see in this photo, he raised his fist in solidarity with protesters already amassing at the security gates.

The committee showed the famous image of the senator raising his fist, which was taken by a photographer for E&E News, subsequently bought by Politico.

Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol. See for yourself.

The committee then played video of Hawley trotting across a corridor and hurrying down a staircase next to an escalator.

In the room, the clips were greeted with laughter.

Online, some took a similarly lighthearted view, one user scoring the footage of Hawley running to a soundtracks including Stayin Alive by the BeeGees, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and the Benny Hill theme.

Hawley had been the first Republican senator to say he would object to results in key states won by Joe Biden, in the certification process Trump ultimately sent a mob to delay or destroy.

Hawley has denied trying to incite violence with his raised fist, telling the Huffington Post: This was not me encouraging rioters At the time that we were out there, folks were gathered peacefully to protest, and they have a right to do that. They do not have a right to assault cops.

Luria said: We spoke with a Capitol police officer who was out there at the time. She told us that Senator Josh Hawleys gesture riled up the crowd and it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers.

The senator has also used the image for fundraising purposes.

The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservatives, said: Hawleys legacy will forever be fleeing from the same mob he helped incite.

After the mob had been cleared from the Capitol a riot now linked to nine deaths and nearly 900 criminal charges Hawley was one of 147 Republicans who went through with their objections to results in key states.

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Republican Josh Hawley fled January 6 rioters and Twitter ran with it - The Guardian US