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Trump ties may come back to haunt in swing state Wisconsin

Trump ties may come back to haunt in swing state Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump reasserted his grip on Republicans in Wisconsin’s primary, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to play that against his newly minted Republican opponent Wednesday while observers said running too closely to Trump in the swing state could be dangerous.

Trump’s pick for governor, construction company co-owner Tim Michels, beat out the choice of establishment Republicans. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said that means Michels now “owns” Trump and he won’t be able to moderate in the general election.

“His relationship with Trump is going to drive this campaign,” Evers told reporters after eating breakfast with his running mate, state Rep. Sarah Rodriguez. “Trump owns him, he owns Trump. That’s his problem with him, that’s not mine.

Michels sought to tie Evers to President Joe Biden, releasing a new TV ad the day after his win that calls them “both career politicians in way over their head.” The ad does not mention Trump’s endorsement of Michels.

Michels’ campaign adviser Chris Walker said in a statement that Evers and Biden “are going to desperately attempt to do everything they can to distract the people of Wisconsin from their massive failures.”

Michels, in his victory speech, touted himself as the voice for a working class that he said has been left behind by Democrats. Evers mocked that message, noting that Michels owns a $17 million estate in Connecticut.

“He can wear a blue shirt so that he can have a blue collar, but at the end of the day I’m not quite sure that someone of his status with houses all over the country can say ‘I’m just one of you ,’” Evers said.

Like Trump, Michels has cast himself as an outsider. Evers dismissed that too, calling it “one of the biggest jokes of this campaign.” He cited Michels’ work of him serving on the boards of powerful lobbying groups, including the state chamber of commerce.

Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 and lost by a similar margin in 2020. A Marquette University Law School poll released in May showed Trump’s favorability rating in the state at 35%, with 61% having an unfavorable opinion.

In addition to supporting Michels, Trump is a strong supporter of the Republican US Sen. Ron Johnson, who faces Mandela Barnes, the current lieutenant governor.

“Trump cuts both ways,” Republican strategist Brandon Scholz said. “While he drives his base and supporters in the primary, will that help in the general because he turns off as many people as he turns on? … I don’t think we know yet.”

Michels would be smart to focus on Biden, Evers and the issues such as inflation, crime and the economy, not Trump, said Republican strategist Mark Graul.

Evers pointed to recent polls to argue that Michels is out of step with a majority of Wisconsin residents on key issues like abortion rights and the outcome of the 2020 election won by Biden. Trump has continued to push for decertification, which attorneys from both sides and legal experts have discounted as an unconstitutional impossibility.

Michels has been inconsistent on decertification, but he does want to dismantle the bipartisan elections commission and sign bills Evers vetoed that would make it harder to vote absentee.

Trump is popular with many because he is perceived to be a fighter, but Michels needs to spread that message, said Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. I have endorsed former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in the primary and was targeted for defeat by Trump.

“If he is a perceived to be a fighter who gets things done, I think that will be a much more appealing general election message,” Vos said of Michels.

Michels’ win over Kleefisch, who was endorsed by Mike Pence and represented a continuation of former Gov. Scott Walker’s legacy, was the clearest victory for a Trump-backed candidate in Wisconsin. But every candidate who ran in support of decertifying Biden’s 2020 victory lost. That included the Trump-backed challenger to Vos, candidates for attorney general and secretary of state and legislative candidates seeking to unseat Republican incumbentsincluding one taking on Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.

In the days before the election, Vos challenger Adam Steen was joined on the campaign trail by the investigator Vos hired under pressure from Trump to look into the 2020 election. That investigator, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, also appeared at the Trump rally.

A triumphant Vos declared his 260-vote win shows “you don’t have to be a lapdog to whatever Donald Trump says.” You called a meeting of Assembly Republicans for Tuesday to discuss the future of Gableman’s contract, which has cost taxpayers more than $1.1 million and remains subject to five pending lawsuits.

Evers said Vos must fire Gableman or “I’m fearful we’re going to be talking about this election for the next 20 years.”

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US

Lawyer: Giuliani won’t testify Tuesday in Ga. election test

Lawyer: Giuliani won't testify Tuesday in Ga. election test

ATLANTA (AP) — Rudy Giuliani will not appear as scheduled Tuesday before a special grand jury in Atlanta that’s investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia, his lawyer said.

A judge last month had ordered Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury Tuesday.

But Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, told The Associated Press on Monday that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, had excused Giuliani for the day.

Nothing in publicly available court documents indicates that Giuliani is excused from appearing, but McBurney has scheduled a hearing for 12:30 pm Tuesday to hear arguments on a court filing from Giuliani seeking to delay his appearance. In a court filing Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the judge to deny Giuliani’s request for a delay and to instruct him to appear before the special grand jury as ordered.

Willis opened an investigation early last year, and a special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May at her request.

Last month she filed petitions seeking to compel testimony from seven Trump advisers and associates, including Giuliani. Because they don’t live in Georgia, she had to use a process that involves getting a judge in the state where they live to order them to appear.

New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta.

Giuliani’s legal team last week asked Willis’ office to delay his appearance, saying he was unable to travel because of a medical procedure. That request was rejected after Willis’ team found evidence on social media that he had traveled since his medical procedure.

A Giuliani attorney then clarified to Willis’s team that Giuliani is not cleared for air travel, but Willis still refused to postpone his appearance, the motion says.

In her Monday court filing, Willis wrote that her team had obtained records indicating that between July 19 and July 21, Giuliani bought multiple airline tickets, including tickets to Rome, Italy, and Zurich, Switzerland, for travel dates between July 22 and July 29 Willis said her team offered to provide alternative transportation — including bus or train fare — if Giuliani wasn’t cleared for air travel.

Giuliani had also offered to appear virtually, for example by Zoom, his motion says.

“It is important to note here that Mr. Giuliani is no way seeking to inappropriately delay, or obstruct these proceedings or avoid giving evidence or testimony that is not subject to some claim of privilege in this matter,” the motion says, noting that Giuliani had appeared virtually before the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and testified for more than nine hours.

“Mr. Giuliani is willing to do the same here under conditions that replicate a grand jury proceeding,” the motion says.

In the petition for Giuliani’s testimony, Willis identified him as both a personal attorney for Trump and a lead attorney for his campaign.

She wrote that he and others presented a Georgia state Senate subcommittee with a video recording of election workers that Giuliani allegedly showed them producing “suitcases” of unlawful ballots from unknown sources, outside the view of election poll watchers.

Within 24 hours of that hearing on Dec. 3, 2020, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office had debunked the video and said that it had found that no voter fraud had taken place at the site. Nevertheless, Giuliani continued to make statements to the public and in subsequent legislative hearings claiming widespread voter fraud using that debunked video, Willis wrote.

Evidence shows that Giuliani’s appearance and testimony at the hearing “was part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition says.

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Tucker reported from Washington.

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GOP Rep who voted to impeach advances in Washington primary

GOP Rep who voted to impeach advances in Washington primary

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse, who voted to impeach Donald Trump, advanced Friday to the general election following days of vote counts in Washington state’s primary, but fellow Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler saw her advantage against an opponent endorsed by Trump rapidly shrink to within recount territory with thousands of votes left to count.

Both drew interparty challenges due to their vote to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Newhouse, the four-term incumbent in the 4th Congressional District in central Washington and Democrat Doug White were essentially tied, with each capturing about 25% of the vote on a crowded ballot. White also advanced to the fall ballot. Loren Culp, a Trump-endorsed former small town police chief who lost the 2020 governor’s race to Democrat Jay Inslee, was at about 21%.

In the 3rd Congressional District in southwestern Washington, Democrat Marie Perez was the top vote getter, with 31% of the vote. Herrera Beutler, who had about 24% on Tuesday night, dropped to 22.6% Thursday night, 257 votes ahead of Joe Kent – ​​a former Green Beret endorsed by Trump — who was at 22.5%.

A mandatory recount would occur if the margin of votes between the No. 2 and No. 3 candidates is less than half of 1% and closer than 2,000 votes.

Because Washington is a vote-by-mail state and ballots just need to be in by Election Day, it often takes days to learn final results in close races as ballots arrive at county election offices throughout the week.

An estimated 35,000 votes are left to count, and the three counties where votes remain to be counted — the majority of it in the 3rd District’s largest county, Clark, — won’t update their tallies again until late Monday afternoon. Counties have until Aug. 16 to finish their count and for canvassing boards to certify the results, followed by certification by the secretary of state by Aug. 19.

Under Washington’s primary system, all candidates run on the same ballot, and the top two vote getters in each of Tuesday’s races advance to the November election, regardless of party.

Of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment, four opted not to run for reelection. Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer was defeated in a primary Tuesday by Trump-endorsed John Gibbs and Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina lost to a Trump-endorsed challenger in June. Rep. David Valadao of California — which has an open primary like Washington — survived a primary challenge. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is bracing for defeat in her Aug. 16 primary against a Trump-backed rival.

In another key match in the 8th Congressional District, incumbent Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier advanced to the November ballot with more than 47% of the vote, and will face former state attorney general candidate Matt Larkin in November.

With about 17% of the vote, Larkin edged out King County Council Member Reagan Dunn, a former federal prosecutor whose mother once held the seat. Dunn granted the race Thursday. The district is a key target of GOP efforts to retake control of the House.

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