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DES MOINES, Iowa Former President Donald Trumps persistent flirtation with another White House run is doing little to discourage other potential Republican candidates from stepping up their activity in Iowa, the state that will formally launch the 2024 nomination process.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quietly finished his fifth trip to Iowa last week, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is making plans for a statewide trip this summer. Former Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, is expected to visit the heart of conservative western Iowa this weekend.

Pences trip is particularly notable since he spent the better part of four years in lockstep with Trump. It provides further evidence that Pence, whose life was threatened by Trump supporters during the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, is considering his political future without regard to the former presidents plans.

Pence and his wife, Karen, will make their plans based on where they are being called to serve, not on what anyone else is doing, including Trump, senior Pence adviser Marc Short said.

From his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump is closely watching the developments in Iowa and working with operatives in the state to ensure that he would dominate the caucuses if he decided to run again. But some Republicans warn that Trump doesnt have the state locked down.

His status as a former president who remains deeply popular with the GOP base doesnt mean someone else with the right message couldnt appeal to them in a way that really cuts into Trumps support, said David Kochel, a veteran Iowa Republican campaign strategist.

Pence, in particular, seems prepared to dig in to the state, especially the sprawling swath of northern and western Iowa where Christian conservatives have lifted the past three GOP caucus winners. Making his third trip to Iowa since the 2020 election, Pence plans to campaign on Saturday with Rep. Randy Feenstra in the Republican-heavy 4th Congressional District and cap the day with a speech to the county GOP meeting in Ames.

Last month, he outlined a policy agenda for 2022 candidates, noting elections are about the future. The comment could foreshadow a confrontation with Trump, who continues to falsely insist that widespread voter fraud cost him a second term in 2020.

Federal and state election officials and Trumps own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted. The former presidents allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

Still, Trump has criticized Pence for not stopping the certification of the Electoral College vote totals that made Democrat Joe Biden the winner. Vice presidents play only a ceremonial role in the counting of Electoral College votes. Any attempt to interfere in the count would have represented an extraordinary violation of the law and an assault on the democratic process, sparking a constitutional crisis.

Only this year did Pence publicly renounce Trumps claims, saying in February the former president was wrong to insist that he had the power to unilaterally overturn the results of the 2020 election. He further distanced himself from Trump after Russia invaded Ukraine. Pence said, There is no room in this party for apologists for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has praised.

The former president has become more critical of Putin as the war in Ukraine has intensified.

The GOPs full court press in Iowa wont likely begin until after the November midterm elections. But the party has already committed to maintaining the states status as home to the first nominating contest. Thats in contrast to Democrats, who are taking the boldest steps in a generation to revise their calendar and potentially concentrate power in states that are more racially diverse.

Pompeo, who wrapped up a two-day trip in western Iowa last week, has been a regular visitor, appearing at local, county and state GOP meetings across the state. But its Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton who owns the early lead for Iowa visits at six, with a seventh planned for July.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the 2016 Iowa GOP caucus winner, has also visited, and endorsed candidates for Congress.

Despite the activity, its unclear that anyone visiting the state is gaining much traction among Iowa GOP activists at this early stage. During recent interviews with a dozen county Republican activists, GOP consultants and donors, much of the focus was on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet to visit the state. The closest hes come is as a guest of Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts at a September fundraiser south of Omaha.

There are a number of people that are interesting and have done work thats been noticed, especially Ron DeSantis, said former Republican county chair Gwen Ecklund, of Crawford County in conservative western Iowa.

DeSantis, governor of the nations third most-populous state, has recently become a rallying voice in the countrys cultural battles, particularly related to LGBTQ issues. He has refused to recognize the transgender swimmer who won the NCAA womens freestyle championship. He signed a bill last month forbidding instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for early elementary school students, a measure opponents have dubbed the Dont Say Gay law.

Hes in an increasingly heated battle with Disney, whose executives have criticized the anti-LGBTQ measures. At his request, the Florida legislature on Thursday gave final passage to a bill that would stop allowing Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its properties in the state.

Influential Republican donors, such as retired insurance executive Cam Sutton of suburban Des Moines, describe DeSantis as similar to Trump on policy, but without the tweets.

Sutton was among a contingent of wealthy Iowa Republicans who traveled to New Jersey in 2011 in hopes of recruiting then-Gov. Chris Christie to run in 2012. Sutton and others remain in touch with Christie and would not be surprised if he runs, as he did in 2016.

Still, Trump remains overwhelmingly popular among Iowa Republicans. According to The Des Moines Registers Iowa Poll in October, 91% of Iowa Republicans said they have a favorable view of him.

That same month, during Trumps most recent appearance in Iowa, he drew tens of thousands to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, where he endorsed Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is seeking an eighth term.

Iowa staff working for his super PAC were recently meeting at the former presidents Florida home to discuss his Iowa plans for the year, mindful of the attention others would be receiving.

Oh, I know there are some who cant wait for him to run again, Crawford Countys Ecklund said. But others are sitting back and starting to pay attention to others.

Story by Thomas Beaumont.

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Iowa Republicans are open to 2024 prospects other than Donald Trump - Bangor Daily News

Rallygoers hold signs at an event hosted by former President Donald Trump in Michigan on April 2. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption

Rallygoers hold signs at an event hosted by former President Donald Trump in Michigan on April 2.

Michigan Republicans will meet this weekend to decide which candidates to nominate for a number of key statewide positions, marking an early swing-state test of former President Donald Trump's influence in the midterm elections.

It could also be the first time the GOP moves forward in a battleground state with an election-denying candidate to oversee voting as secretary of state.

Michigan doesn't hold primaries for a number of down-ballot races, including secretary of state and attorney general. Instead, a few thousand party delegates from across the state meet at a convention and choose a nominee for those positions.

Here are four things to know ahead of Saturday's Republican endorsement convention at DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids.

As NPR has documented, election-denying candidates across the country are running in 2022 for positions that oversee voting.

But with primary season only just kicking off in earnest, none of those candidates has officially become the GOP's nominee for secretary of state in those places.

That's expected to change on Saturday.

Kristina Karamo, a community college professor who has spent much of the past year and a half arguing that there were gross irregularities in the 2020 election, is widely favored to be endorsed by the party at the convention.

Kristina Karamo, who is running for the Michigan Republican Party's nomination for secretary of state, gets an endorsement from Trump during his April 2 rally. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption

Kristina Karamo, who is running for the Michigan Republican Party's nomination for secretary of state, gets an endorsement from Trump during his April 2 rally.

She already has the endorsement of Trump, who hosted a rally with Karamo and others in Washington Township, Mich., earlier this month.

"This is not just about 2022; this is about making sure Michigan is not rigged and stolen again in 2024," Trump said. "I don't do this often for state people, but this is so important. What happened in Michigan is a disgrace."

Karamo rose to prominence in the world of election denialism as a poll watcher at Detroit's TCF Center, where absentee ballots were being counted in 2020. She claimed to have witnessed election fraud, although Michigan's former elections director explained to The Guardian that Karamo seemed to just misunderstand what she was watching as someone without formal training.

Outside of politics, Karamo has also voiced a number of other fringe beliefs. A CNN review of her podcast appearances and writings found that she has opposed the teaching of evolution, and declared herself an "anti-vaxxer."

She also appeared at a QAnon-adjacent rally in Las Vegas last year.

For those reasons, experts say that if nominated, she may have a hard time in November's general election unseating incumbent Democrat Jocelyn Benson, who also holds a massive fundraising advantage in the race.

"Every ad from April 24 through November is going to say 'QAnon Karamo is too crazy for us,' " said state Rep. Beau LaFave, who is running against Karamo on Saturday.

Karamo's campaign did not respond to an NPR request for an interview.

While Karamo is expected to win the race for secretary of state, the convention contest for attorney general will probably come down to the wire, said Jason Roe, the former executive director of the Michigan GOP.

"No outcome would surprise me," said Roe.

Matthew DePerno, who is seeking the Michigan GOP nomination for state attorney general, appears at the April Trump rally. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption

Matthew DePerno is an attorney who has pushed Trump's false claims of election fraud, and also received the former president's endorsement in the race. Of the two candidates he faces, former state House Speaker Tom Leonard is expected to give the toughest challenge, and is considered the more mainstream, establishment candidate.

Trump held a telephone town hall this week in support of DePerno, in which he claimed Leonard refused to stop election fraud in 2020, even though Leonard was last in office was 2018. Trump also nominated Leonard in 2019 to be U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan. (The nomination was blocked.)

"When Trump came into Michigan, he thought he had a blank canvas on which he could paint a portrait of who Tom Leonard is and that nobody would know any better," Roe said. "Except the reality is that everybody in Michigan knows Tom Leonard. So when Trump says that he's a RINO [Republican in name only] ... it just doesn't ring true with the base."

Roe added that DePerno may also struggle to fundraise should he get the endorsement, because of his inability to reach voters outside of Trump's supporters.

DePerno has pushed a number of election conspiracies since 2020, and has also been endorsed by MyPillow founder and election denial leader Mike Lindell.

The former president has made it clear that Michigan may be his highest priority in this fall's midterms; he has endorsed more than 15 candidates in the state already.

Roe says that means this weekend's convention will be a major test of the influence Trump holds over the party nationally, a year and a half after losing the 2020 election by more than 70 Electoral College votes, and 7 million votes in the popular vote.

"If Tom Leonard manages to pull it out, it will show that the mainstream forces within the party, those people that are more focused on winning elections than ideological purity, will have prevailed," said Roe. "If Matthew DePerno secures the nomination, I think it will demonstrate that the MAGA wing of the party is in control."

Among states voting to elect a secretary of state this year, Michigan is the only one in which voters will not have a say in who is on the ballot in November.

The state has a complicated convention model for those several down-ballot races.

Michigan law states that nominating conventions need to take place in August. But a few years ago, Democrats in the state figured they could get a head start on building name recognition for their candidates and party unity by deciding their nominees earlier.

Thus, the endorsement convention was born. Democrats began meeting in the spring to vote on which candidate the party would nominate a few months later.

This is the first year Republicans in the state are following suit.

The convention model is generally thought to advantage more extreme candidates than a primary, since the voting pool is made up of people more dedicated to the party than the average voter.

"The convention harkens back to the old imagery of the smoke-filled room," said Julio Borquez, a political science professor at the University of Michigan. "You have staunchly conservative Republicans gathered in one place, and that could result in a very solidly right-of-center candidate."

The process also changes what a campaign looks like.

LaFave, the state representative who is running for secretary of state, told NPR this week that he had a pile of 64 pages of voting delegates and their phone numbers and that he was calling them one by one to ask for their votes.

"I vacillate between 'all hope is lost' and 'I won this thing six weeks ago,' " LaFave said.

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4 things to know ahead of Michigan's Republican convention - NPR

Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court chose political maps proposed by Republicans in the Legislature, entrenching the states extreme partisan gerrymander for another decade yet, for now, the maps are unlikely to create a veto-proof Republican majority and are still subject to legal challenges.

No matter what the courts do with the maps moving forward, however, they will be in place for this falls midterm elections where no matter how well Democrats do statewide in the races for governor and U.S. Senate, Republicans are expected to maintain their large majority in the Legislature. But, according to Marquette University research fellow John Johnson, the seats Republicans would have to win to override the veto pen of Democratic Governor Tony Evers, if he wins reelection, are unlikely to flip.

This, he says, is because rather than prioritizing the maps to get past the veto, Republicans focused on making sure vulnerable Republicans in districts that have changed demographically since the previous maps were set in 2011 remain in their seats.

A veto proof majority is unlikely and in fact if anything, even slightly less likely now than it was under the old maps, Johnson says. I suspect the Republican party recognized that its really unlikely youd have a scenario where theyd win a supermajority under any maps without also winning the governors seat. So without optimizing for a supermajority, they were shoring up Republican-held seats they were concerned were trending in the wrong direction.

According to a Marquette University analysis, under the new map Republicans are expected to increase their majority in the state Assembly from the current 61 seats to 63 three seats short of a 66 seats needed to claim a veto-proof, two-thirds majority

Johnson uses election results from the 2016 presidential election, 2018 gubernatorial election and 2020 presidential election to predict how the maps will play out. He says that in the 99 Assembly districts across the entire state, only three are truly competitive the 73rd and 74th districts in Northern Wisconsin near Superior, which are currently held by the retiring Reps. Nick Milroy (D-South Range) and Beth Meyers (D-Bayfield), and the 94th district near La Crosse, held by Rep. Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska).

The 66th seat Republicans would need to flip in order to gain a supermajority, Johnson says, is the 71st district near Stevens Point, which is held by Rep. Katrina Shankland and unlikely to be won by Republicans.

But the highly contentious maps are also likely to face legal challenges from voters who object to the way they handle minority voters around Milwaukee and the extreme partisan gerrymander it entrenches.

The state Supreme Court had initially selected maps proposed by Evers, which also leaned Republican but were more competitive than the 2011 maps or Republican legislators recent maps, which the court eventually chose. Evers maps also included seven majority Black districts in the Milwaukee area, one more than in the old maps. On an appeal from the Legislature, the U.S. Supreme Court said the state court didnt provide enough evidence for why the seven majority Black districts were required under the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) and sent the case back, saying it needed to show why the seventh district was needed or choose a different map.

In his concurring opinion, conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn the crucial swing vote who initially sided with the courts liberals in picking Evers maps, then flipped once the U.S. Supreme Court sent those maps back to the state wrote that its possible the chosen maps wont survive a challenge under the VRA.

The record, such as it is, does not sufficiently support the conclusion that the Legislatures maps violate the VRA, he wrote. Perhaps a court deciding a VRA challenge on a more complete record would reach a different result. But I cannot conclude a violation is established based on the record we have before us. That means that in light of the Supreme Courts clarified instructions, the Legislatures state senate and state assembly maps are the only legally compliant maps we received.

Mel Barnes, an attorney for progressive legal group Law Forward, says there will likely be a challenge to the maps under the VRA and if successful the Milwaukee area districts would be redrawn even though Law Forward, which argued in the state lawsuit over the new maps, disagrees that the record was insufficient to prove the seventh district was required.

I think that Justice Hagedorn very much left the door open to a Voting Rights Act challenge here, she says. While we believe there was plenty of evidence in the record showing that those districts were required, the court has a responsibility to comply with the VRA in the maps it selects. The VRA is still the law of the land and I think that the court in this decision abdicated its responsibility to apply those protections.

I think the Wisconsin Legislatures decision to reduce the number of Black majority districts after the census data showed us the Black population grew is really indefensible, she continues. The Legislatures districts have very high percentages of Black voters in several of its districts and I think those districts could be challenged under the VRA in federal court.

There are also two federal court cases that were brought last year and put on hold while the state court chose the new maps. Barnes says that this week Law Forward attorneys told the federal courts it wants to keep those suits open while it strategizes for whats next.

She also says a lawsuit against the partisan gerrymander could still happen in the state court system. A federal challenge centered on partisan gerrymandering is impossible because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that partisan issues are not a federal concern.

While the maps give Republicans a firm hold on the Legislature for the foreseeable future, Johnson says Wisconsin will change in unpredictable ways over the next decade. Suburban Milwaukee seats that were safely Republican in 2011 have now flipped, for example.

Gerrymanders grow stale over the course of a decade, he says. Its not actually predictable how the winds will change over the course of the decade. I expect us to be surprised by which seats are competitive in 2028.

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New maps unlikely to give Republicans veto-proof majority and open to voting rights challenges - Wisconsin Examiner

Protesters outside of an abortion clinic. Sarah McCammon/NPR hide caption

Even without the U.S. Supreme Court weighing in - and with Roe v. Wade still officially the law of the land - Republican lawmakers managed to shut down abortions in Kentucky for more than a week. That was until abortion rights advocates won a court order on Thursday allowing them to resume the procedure.

"This is where patients would come after their procedure," Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky, said on Wednesday as she stood behind an empty nurses' station in her Louisville health center. "Generally all of the beds would be full on a procedure day. There is nobody in here, and it has been empty since last week."

A 'temporary reprieve'

Abortion providers in Kentucky say they're now resuming abortion services after a federal judge issued the order temporarily blocking a new state law known as House Bill 3, which had halted abortions there since the middle of last week.

But they acknowledge it may be a fleeting victory and a preview of what's likely coming next, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe and other precedents guaranteeing abortion rights, as many observers expect.

"We know it's a temporary reprieve and it's heartbreaking to see how this is going to play out. You begin to feel the dominoes cascade," Wieder said. "It's not going to last long."

Tamarra Wieder testifies during a hearing on a bill that would ban abortion after 15 weeks at the Capitol Annex in Frankfort, Kentucky, on March 10, 2022. Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal/USA Today Network via Reuters hide caption

'Impossible' to comply

HB 3 includes a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, modeled after a Mississippi law that is currently before the Supreme Court, and includes layers of new regulations which clinics say are impossible to comply with on short notice. It took effect immediately under an emergency provision after Republican lawmakers voted to override Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's veto on April 13.

Both of the two health centers that offer abortions in Kentucky said they had no choice but to shut down abortion services after the regulations took effect. Those regulations include rules for abortion pills and providers, requirements for collecting patient information, and regulations around the handling of fetal remains.

Heather Gatnarek is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which represents the EMW Women's Surgical Center, also in Louisville. She said state health officials haven't had time to develop the necessary forms and other protocols for compliance.

"At this point, it's impossible for the clinic to comply or to take steps for compliance because we need things from the state of Kentucky that they haven't created yet," Gatnarek said.

Beshear called the new law an "unfunded mandate" because of the heavy role the state will need to play in complying with the regulations. But he said Kentucky health officials will comply if the courts ultimately uphold the law.

On Thursday afternoon, a federal judge issued an order temporarily blocking HB 3, after both the ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed federal lawsuits challenging it.

In a response filed earlier in the week, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, had argued that clinics are not required to "comply with forms and regulations that do not yet exist." But abortion providers disagreed with that interpretation, saying they can't take the risk of facing heavy fines, or jail time for violating some parts of it.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron speaks during a news conference in Frankfort, Ky. Timothy D. Easley/AP hide caption

Stopping abortion through bans or through rules

Republican state Rep. Nancy Tate, who opposes abortion rights, sponsored the proposal.

"People accuse me of trying to stop abortions, and personally, they're absolutely right," she said in an interview with NPR. "I would dearly love to stop abortions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky as well as everywhere else."

But until then, Tate argued the law would make patients safer. Abortion rights groups say the procedure already is heavily regulated, and that the law would only make it inaccessible.

The past week has been almost a trial run of what's likely ahead for many states with Republican-dominated legislatures, if the Supreme Court allows them to ban most or all abortions.

Abortion-rights opponents have employed a multi-pronged strategy designed to ban abortion as quickly and completely as the courts will allow, and to prepare for the anticipated Supreme Court ruling. This year, Republican lawmakers in states including Arizona, Florida, Idaho, and Oklahoma, have passed a wave of new abortion restrictions many modeled after those in Texas or Mississippi.

Since September, Texas Republicans have succeeded in blocking most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, under a new state law that relies on private citizens to enforce it through lawsuits.

Abortion-rights supporters chant their objections at the Kentucky Capitol on April 13, 2022 in Frankfort, Ky., as Kentucky lawmakers debate overriding the governor's veto of an abortion measure. Bruce Schreiner/AP hide caption

Abortion-rights supporters chant their objections at the Kentucky Capitol on April 13, 2022 in Frankfort, Ky., as Kentucky lawmakers debate overriding the governor's veto of an abortion measure.

The 'long game'

For patients in Louisville who were unable to obtain abortions in Kentucky in recent days, the nearest alternative was more than two hours away in Indiana. Planned Parenthood staff said appointments there were filling up fast in the days after HB 3 took effect.

Erin Smith is executive director of the Kentucky Health Justice Network, which spent more than $100,000 dollars last year helping low-income people pay for abortions, and travel. Smith said they're on pace to exceed those numbers this year, and thinking about new strategies for responding to an increasingly restrictive legal landscape around abortion.

"We are going to have to just restructure. We're going to have to think long game," Smith said. "We're going to have to make plans, like, hey, maybe we should charter a bus. Maybe it takes that."

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How Kentucky Republicans blocked all abortions for more than a week - NPR

North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R) is not a good person.

For starters, hes a liar. During his 2020 campaign, he claimed that in 2014 he was on his way to the Naval Academy when a car crash left him paralyzed from the waist down. He has also noted that he was a successful businessman. But both claims were lies. Cawthorn had already been rejected from the Naval Academy before the car accident occurred and, according to tax records, the real-estate investment firm that he founded in 2019 claimed no income.

But that didnt matter to his constituents, who were pleased to elect the youngest member of Congress believing him to be an astute real estate businessman who was on his way to serving the country before an unfortunate twist of fate.

But Cawthorn didnt stop there. Since taking office, hes claimed that he was training for the 2020 Paralympic Games until his disability began to worsen, causing him to opt out. The problem with the statement is that no one in the Paralympics was familiar with Cawthorns possible participation. While the statement isnt necessarily false, its most likely untrue. Let me explain. Before I got married, I would tell women I was dating that I was well on my way to playing in the NBA until an unfortunate knee injury ruined my basketball dreams. If you asked anyone in the NBA, they would give you some of the same stunning, quizzical looks that Ketanji Brown Jackson gave during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing. But that doesnt mean I didnt believe that my training wasnt going to get me to the league.

My assessment of Cawthorn is not a personal reflection: One of the lawmakers former staff members has called him a bad person and a habitual liar.

As far as the candidate himself, I mean, hes just a bad person, former staffer Lisa Wiggins said in a secretly recorded phone call with David Wheeler, the president of a political action committee called Fire Madison Cawthorn.

Hes a habitual liar and hes going to say and do anything he can to your face but behind your back, hes completely opposite, she added.

Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Wiggins went on to note that his district office was littered with alcohol bottles and added that there was more liquor in his office than water, because he treats the place like a frat house.

Which is ironic, considering he was caught lying about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) being an alcoholic when she doesnt even drink. And we cant forget the whale of a whopper (maybe?) he told about being invited to orgies and seeing Congress members doing cocaine in front of him. He was finally reprimanded for this statement by his fellow Republicans.

But heres the rub. Despite all of these tall tales that would likely sink a Democrats political future and all but ensure that they would be a one-term politician, Cawthorn is merely in a tight race for his seat.

This appears to be the way for the Republican Party: Candidates can be as vile, despicable, untrustworthy, horrid, deplorable, unpatriotic and whatever other adjectives one would use to describe Florida Sen. Ted Cruz, as they want while Democrats are forced to be the parents in the room. Currently, Democrats are facing tough questions around inflation, the war in Ukraine, gas prices, housing prices and climate change. As it stands, Republicans latest hustle appears to be blaming President Joe Biden for everything from Russias invasion of Ukraine (they claimed it only happened because Biden is weak) to high gas prices (hes holding back production of oil in the United States).

The shots against the president were so bad that Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) came to his defense after the House Republicans official Twitter account tweeted a photo of Biden walking away from a podium with the caption: This is what weakness on the world stage looks like.

Its not just an attempt to undermine the presidency. It falls in line with what appears to be the Republican agenda: tear the country apart while pushing wild conspiracy theories and manufactured beefs. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) has said that Muslims dont belong in government; mass shootings in Parkland, Sandy Hook and Las Vegas were staged; and California wildfires were not natural events but were actually started by secret Jewish space lasers and she believed all of this before she was elected to Congress.

Currently, the junior varsity Trump, Ron DeSantis, is in a fight with Disney over his states draconian and mind-numbingly stupid Dont Say Gay bill. While America has its eyes on the unprovoked war in Ukraine, the Florida governor is in an all-out war with The Greatest Place on Earth.

Because Congress is not a unified front, Democrats are busy governing the country and putting out Jewish laser forest fires that Republicans keep starting. Congress has never been a happy home, but what used to be outliers to a fundamental way of thinking have now become the basis of the aluminum foil party. Theyre wasting time fighting imaginary wars against so-called cancel culture (which does not exist) and wokeism, which for the uninitiated can easily be defined as anything that goes against GOP doctrine. By tearing down the fourth wall of decorum, Republicans have created a playroom that allows for meltdowns, temper tantrums, out-there theories and unsubstantiated statements, which enables them to be full-bodied politicians who can present however they choose.

The party that once prided itself as fiscally responsible or closer to God than the rest of us is now the party of insurrections, crusades against critical race theory and defending Russian President Vladimir Putin and they arent losing voters because of it. Its like one day the Republican party had a spine albeit a significantly crooked spine that pointed to archaic jurisprudence and racism but a spine nonetheless, and then Donald Trump took office and blunt, off-the-cuff, unadulterated and unfiltered soundbites became the new GOP.

This isnt the party that former president and GOP god Ronald Reagan exemplified; in fact, Reagan probably wouldnt sit at this Republican cafeteria table. But this is the shakily built political landscape that we live in, in which up is down and the right is allowed to be not only batshit crazy but potentially criminal.

Currently, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz is facing accusations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and engaged in sex trafficking. Not only has he not resigned from office, but hes one of the most outspoken politicians in Congress. Ohio Sen. Jim Jordans entire time in public office will forever be shrouded by the claims from former Ohio State wrestlers that, during his time as an assistant wrestling coach, Jordan knew that the student athletes were being sexually assaulted and did nothing to stop it. And dont forget that in 2018, Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore was so allegedly predatory that The New Yorker reported that he was banned from a local mall because he preyed on teens and he barely lost his election.

But Im sure there is an explanation as to how Republicans lost their moral compass. If we could only get access to Hillary Clintons emails or Hunter Bidens laptop, Im sure wed find it.

Continued here:
Republicans Temper Tantrums Should Hurt Them At The Ballot Box. Instead, Theyre Hurting Democrats. - HuffPost