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Eric Schmitt beats former Gov. Eric Greitens in Missouri GOP Senate primary, NBC projects

Eric Schmitt beats former Gov. Eric Greitens in Missouri GOP Senate primary, NBC projects

FARMINGTON, MISSOURI – JULY 31: Missouri Attorney General and Republican Senate candidate Eric Schmitt speaks to supporters in Hall Pavilion at Englar Park on July 31, 2022 in Farmington, Missouri. Schmitt is holding campaign events on the last weekend before the August 2nd primary elections in Missouri. He is the front runner in the primary race that includes former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, to replace outgoing Senator Roy Blunt. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Michael M. Santiago | Getty ImagesNews | Getty Images

Eric Greitens, the scandal-tarred former Missouri governor who launched a comeback bid against the wishes of many Republicans, will lose the state’s GOP Senate primary, NBC News projects.

Eric Schmitt, currently the state’s attorney general, is projected to proceed to the general election, where he will compete with a Democratic nominee for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt.

The primary results mark a thudding defeat for Greitens, who fully embraced former President Donald Trump and fought against recent allegations of domestic abuse as he looked to claw his way back to the political fore.

Greitens had announced his Senate bid nearly three years after resigning from the governor’s office amid accusations that he blackmailed a hairdresser with whom he was having an affair. Greitens admitted to the tryst of her, but denied he had threatened to release her nude photographs he took of her if she revealed the affair.

He was charged with felony invasion of privacy related to the alleged blackmailing. Greitens was also charged with illegally using a charity donor list to help fund his 2016 gubernatorial campaign. Both charges were dropped around the time Greitens resigned in June 2018.

Eric Greitens, Missouri Governor, pictured at the Robin Hood Veterans Summit in New York City.

Craig Barritt | Getty ImagesEntertainment | Getty Images

Those and other scandals led mainstream Republicans to worry about a Greitens candidacy jeopardizing the party’s hold on a Senate seat in a state that otherwise reliably votes Republicans into high office. Democrats are desperate to keep their razor-thin majority in the Senate, but their control of the chamber is threatened by a challenging political environment, exacerbated by President Joe Biden’s unpopularity and recent economic turmoil.

Greitens had aligned himself completely with Trump during his Senate campaign, including echoing Trump’s false claims about widespread fraud tainting the 2020 presidential election. Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., joined Greitens’ campaign as national co-chair.

But the former president ultimately did not give Greitens a full-throated endorsement. Rather, he bizarrely endorsed “Eric” in the Missouri GOP Senate primary, where two of the top candidates are named Eric.

“I trust the Great People of Missouri, on this one, to make up their own minds,” Trump said in a social media post on the eve of the primary.

Both Greitens and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt touted Trump’s announcement as though it were a personal endorsement.

Polling averages from RealClearPolitics showed Greitens had a smaller lead over a top Democratic primary candidate than either of his two biggest competitors in the Republican primary.

After Sheena Greitens filed court documents in March alleging Eric Greitens abused her and their young son while they were married, numerous top Republicans called on Greitens to drop out.

“If you hit a woman or a child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who had investigated Greitens when he was Missouri’s attorney general.

Blunt himself said that Greitens “should not be a candidate for the Senate” if Sheena Greitens’ allegations are true.

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Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon wins Michigan Republican primary

Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon wins Michigan Republican primary

Republican Michigan Gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, flanked by her children, speaks with members of the media outside the Norton Shores Fire Station 3 after voting on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022 in Grand Rapids, MI.

Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Tudor Dixon, a former conservative commentator and actor endorsed by ex-President Donald Trump, will win Michigan’s Republican gubernatorial primary election, NBC News projects.

Dixon will face off in the general against incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

In the tumultuous Republican gubernatorial primary, meanwhile, Dixon emerged as a frontrunner only after multiple leading candidates were disqualified from the ballot and another was arrested on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Dixon could be facing an uphill battle against Whitmer, whose bid for a second term in office is buoyed by a well-funded campaign and strong approval ratings. Despite President Joe Biden’s unpopularity in the state threatening to dampen Democratic enthusiasm across the board, recent polls showed Whitmer above water. Surveys conducted before the primary also showed Whitmer leading Dixon in a hypothetical matchup.

But Dixon is also backed by the powerful DeVos family, which is reportedly connected to super PACs that have spent more than $2 million in support of her candidacy. Betsy DeVos was Trump’s former Secretary of Education, but she resigned after Jan. 6, 2021, later saying that Trump crossed a “line in the sand.”

Dixon took a consistent and growing lead in the GOP primary over the past month, according to polls compiled by RealClearPolitics. Trump endorsed her less than a week before Election Day.

Before Trump announced his endorsement, DeVos penned a handwritten note to the former president, urging him to back him Dixon, The New York Times reported.

Dixon, like other candidates in Michigan’s Republican primary, had previously echoed Trump’s false claims about key election results in 2020 being rigged through widespread fraud. On the weekend before the primary and after receiving Trump’s endorsement, Dixon offered more ambiguous language, saying she had concerns about how the race was prosecuted in her state.

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Senate passes long-sought bill to help veterans affected by burn pits

Senate passes long-sought bill to help veterans affected by burn pits



CNN
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The Senate voted Tuesday night to pass a long-sought bipartisan legislation to expand health care benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service, sending the bill to President Joe Biden to sign into law. The final vote was 86-11.

Passage of the bill marks the end of a lengthy fight to get the legislation through Congress, as veterans and their advocates had been demonstrating on Capitol Hill for days. Many veterans were allowed into the Senate gallery to watch the final vote on Tuesday evening.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced after reaching the deal with Republicans who had blocked the bill from advancing last week while they sought to add cost-controlling amendment votes to the package.

“I have some good news, the minority leader and I have come to an agreement to vote on the PACT Act this evening,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “I’m very optimistic that this bill will pass so our veterans across America can breathe a sigh of relief.”

The bill, called the Honoring our PACT Act, was approved by the House of Representatives in July.

The bill widely expands health care resources and benefits to those exposed to burn pits and could provide coverage for up to 3.5 million toxic-exposed veterans. It adds conditions related to burn pit and toxic exposure, including hypertension, to the Department of Veterans Affair’s list of illnesses that have been incurred or exacerbated during military service.

The legislation had been held up in the chamber since last week when more than two dozen Republicans, who previously supported the measure, temporarily blocked it from advancing.

Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, rallied fellow Republicans to hold up the legislation in exchange for amendment votes, specifically an amendment that would change an accounting provision. Toomey had previously said he wanted an amendment vote with a 50-vote threshold.

Toomey discusses why he voted against bill to help vets exposed to toxic burn pits

Tuesday’s final vote followed votes on three amendments with a 60-vote threshold. Toomey’s amendment, which would have made a change to a budget component of the legislation, failed as expected, in a vote of 47-48.

Last week’s surprise move by Republicans led to a swift backlash among veterans and veterans’ groups, including protests on the US Capitol steps over the weekend and early this week. Comedian and political activist Jon Stewart – a lead advocate for veterans on the issue – took individual GOP senators to task for holding up a bill that had garnered wide bipartisan support in earlier votes.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defended his party’s handling of the legislation at a news conference on Tuesday.

“Look, these kind of back and forths happen all the time in the legislative process, you’ve observed that over the years,” he said. “I think in the end, the veterans service organizations will be pleased with the final result.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

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Jan. 6 text messages wiped from phones of key Trump Pentagon officials

Jan. 6 text messages wiped from phones of key Trump Pentagon officials

The acknowledgment that the phones from the Pentagon officials had been wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit American Oversight brought against the Defense Department and the Army. The watchdog group is seeking January 6 records from former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former chief of staff Kash Patel, and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, among other prominent Pentagon officials — having filed initial FOIA requests just a few days after the Capitol attack.

Miller, Patel and McCarthy have all been viewed as crucial witnesses for understanding the government’s response to the January 6 Capitol assault and former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the breach. All three were involved in the Defense Department’s response to sending National Guard troops to the US Capitol as the riot was unfolding. There is no suggestion that the officials themselves erased the records.

The government’s assertion in the files that the officials’ text messages from that day were not preserved is the latest blow to the efforts to bring transparency to the events of January 6. It comes as the Department of Homeland Security is also under fire for the apparent loss of messages from the Secret Service that day.

Miller declined to comment. Patel and McCarthy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon and the Army also did not respond to requests for comment.

American Oversight is now calling for a “cross-agency investigation” by the Justice Department to investigate destruction of the materials.

“It’s just astounding to believe that the agency did not understand the importance of preserving its records — particularly [with regards] to the top officials that might have captured: what they were doing, when they were doing it, why they were doing, it on that day,” Heather Sawyer, American Oversight’s executive director, told CNN.

Sawyer said that her organization learned the records were not preserved from government attorneys last spring, and that acknowledgment was then memorialized in a joint status report filed with the court in March.

Top lawmakers renew call for DHS IG to step aside from investigation into missing texts, citing CNN reporting

“DOD and Army conveyed to Plaintiff that when an employee separates from DOD or Army he or she turns in the government-issued phone, and the phone is wiped,” the government said in the filing. “For those custodians no longer with the agency, the text messages were not preserved and therefore could not be searched, although it is possible that particular text messages could have been saved into other records systems such as email.”

The acknowledgment that the records were not preserved has taken on new significance in the wake of the ongoing scandal over the loss of Secret Service agents’ texts from January 6.

“It just reveals a widespread lack of taking seriously the obligation to preserve records, to ensure accountability, to ensure accountability to their partners in the legislative branch and to the American people,” Sawyer said.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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Alina Kabaeva: US sanctions Putin’s reputed girlfriend

Alina Kabaeva: US sanctions Putin's reputed girlfriend

Alina Maratovna Kabaeva, who has been romantically linked to the Russian leader, was sanctioned “for being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of the Government of the Russian Federation,” a Treasury Department statement said.

That statement describes the 39-year-old Kabaeva as having “a close relationship with Putin.” She is a former member of the State Duma “and is the current head of the National Media Group, a pro-Kremlin empire of television, radio, and print organizations.”

In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that sanctioning Kabaeva was under consideration by the US, but there was concern that such a move would inflame tensions given her close proximity to Putin.

Kabaeva was previously sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Grain ship departs key Ukrainian port for first time since early days of war

In addition to Kabaeva, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against a number of other oligarchs, a major steel production company and two of its subsidiaries as well as a financial institution accused of running a sanctions evasion operation and its general director.

Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions on three oligarchs, a Russian state-owned company overseen by the Ministry of Transportation, “four individuals and one entity illegitimately operating in Ukraine’s territory in collaboration with Russia,” and 24 Russian defense and technology -related entities.

The US is also imposing visa restrictions on 893 Russian Federation officials and “31 foreign government officials who have acted to support Russia’s purported annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine and thereby threatened or violated Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Blinken said.

Many of the designations announced by the US target oligarchs who were previously sanctioned by allies like the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the European Union. They come as the war in Ukraine has entered its sixth month.

‘Opulent lifestyles’

“As innocent people suffer from Russia’s illegal war of aggression, Putin’s allies have enriched themselves and funded opulent lifestyles,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “The Treasury Department will use every tool at our disposal to make sure that Russian elites and the Kremlin’s enablers are held accountable for their complicity in a war that has cost countless lives.”

The oligarchs sanctioned by the State Department Tuesday are Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, Alexander Anatolevich Ponomarenko, and Dmitry Aleksandrovich Pumpyanskiy. The yacht AXIOMA was identified as blocked property in which Pumpyanskiy has an interest, the State Department said in a fact sheet.

According to that fact sheet, Ponomarenko “is an oligarch with close ties to other oligarchs and the construction of Vladimir Putin’s seaside palace” who has previously been sanctioned by the UK, EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Among the oligarchs sanctioned by the Treasury Department Tuesday is Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, the Russian billionaire founder of the chemical company “PhosAgro” and former government official described by the Treasury as “a known close associate” of Putin. He is also sanctioned by the UK, and according to the US Treasury, he “owns the Witanhurst estate, which is the second largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace.”

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lands in Taiwan amid threats of Chinese retaliation

The Treasury Department on Tuesday identified the yacht Alfa Nero, reportedly owned by AG Guryev, as blocked property.

AG Guryev’s son, Andrey Andreevich Guryev, was also sanctioned by the US Tuesday, after previously being sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, and the UK, as was his investment firm Dzhi AI Invest OOO.

Natalya Valeryevna Popova was sanctioned “for operating or having operated in the technology sector of the Russian Federation economy, and for being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of LLC VEB Ventures,” which is a sanctioned entity. She was also sanctioned for being the wife of Kirill Aleksandrovich Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Both he and the RDIF were sanctioned in the days following the start of the war.

The Joint Stock Company Promising Industrial and Infrastructure Technologies, “a financial institution owned by the Russian Federal Agency for State Property Management,” and its General Director Anton Sergeevich Urusov were sanctioned Tuesday in relation to alleged sanctions evasion.

According to the Treasury Department, “JSC PPIT attempted to facilitate the circumvention of sanctions imposed on the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).”

The Treasury Department sanctioned Publichnoe Aktsionernoe Obschestvo Magnitogorskiy Metallurgicheskiy Kombinat (MMK), described as “one of the world’s largest steel producers,” the chairman of its board of directors Viktor Filippovich Rashnikov — who has also been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the EU , Switzerland, and the UK — and two of MMK’s subsidiaries.

“MMK is one of Russia’s largest taxpayers, providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation,” the Treasury Department said. The agency has authorized a wind-down period for transactions with MMK and one of its subsidiaries.

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DOJ sues to block Idaho abortion law after Supreme Court tosses Roe

DOJ sues to block Idaho abortion law after Supreme Court tosses Roe

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announces enforcement actions against Russia, during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, US, April 6, 2022.

Elizabeth Franz | Reuters

The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block Idaho’s new restrictive abortion law on the grounds that it violates federal law requiring most hospitals to give medically necessary treatment to patients before discharging them.

It is the first Justice Department lawsuit to target a state’s new abortion restrictions adopted on the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June, which said there is not a federal constitutional right to abortion.

That ruling reversed the Supreme Court’s 49-year-old decision in Roe v. Wade, which established the nationwide right of women to terminate their pregnancies.

Attorney General Merrick Garland held a news conference detailing the lawsuit.

The suit filed in Idaho federal court notes that the state “has passed a near-absolute ban on abortion,” which after taking effect Aug. 25 will make it a criminal offense to perform an abortion “in all but extremely narrow circumstances.”

Garland said the ban conflicts with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires a hospital that accepts Medicare funds to provide treatment at their emergency departments to stabilize a patient necessary to stabilize their medical condition before transferring or discharging the patient.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

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Biden Justice Department sues Idaho over state’s abortion restrictions

Biden Justice Department sues Idaho over state's abortion restrictions

Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which will take effect later this month, would make it nearly impossible, according to the Justice Department. for patients who need an abortion in emergency medical situations, such as an ectopic pregnancy or other complications, from receiving potentially lifesaving treatment.

Where state abortion bans stand amid legal challenges

“In the days since the Dobbs decision, there have been widespread reports of delays or denials to pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news conference Tuesday. “We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that pregnant women get the medical care that they are entitled to.”

The trigger law, which was passed in 2020, would make providing abortions a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The ban has exceptions for cases of rape or incest if reported to law enforcement or to prevent the death of the pregnant person.

The Justice Department is suing under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which states that hospitals receiving Medicare funds “must provide medical treatment necessary to stabilize that condition before transferring or discharging the patient,” according to Tuesday’s lawsuit.

“The Idaho law would make it a criminal offense for doctors to comply with EMTALA’s requirement to provide stabilizing treatment, even where a doctor determines that abortion is the medical treatment necessary to prevent a patient from suffering severe health risks or even death,” DOJ said .

The inside story of how John Roberts failed to save abortion rights

Abortion providers in Idaho have also challenged the state’s trigger law. The state Supreme Court is set to hear the case on Wednesday.

DOJ last month created a task force aimed at protecting abortion fights following the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs that overturned Roe v. Wade and struck down the federal right to abortion.

Garland said that the lawsuit has “nothing to do with going around” the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs.

“The Supreme Court said that each state can make its own decisions with respect to abortion, but so too can the federal government,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Nothing that the Supreme Court said, said that the statutes passed by Congress, such as EMTALA are in any way invalid. It’s quite the opposite. The Supreme Court left it to the people’s representatives. EMTALA was a decision made by the Congress of the United States. The supremacy clause is a decision made in the Constitution of the United States. Federal law invalidates state laws that are in direct contradiction.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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NY Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Rep. Lee Zeldin by 14 points ahead of Nov. 8 election: Poll

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Rep. Lee Zeldin by 14 points ahead of Nov. 8 election: Poll

A new Siena College poll shows Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul with a 14-point lead over Republican nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

When asked who they’d “vote for today” if Hochul and Zeldin were the candidates for their respective parties, 53% of respondents said they’d vote for the governor while 39% said they would vote for Zeldin.

Another 7% said they “don’t know” or had no opinion and 2% said they would not vote for governor at all.

“Hochul dominates in New York City, leading by nearly 50 points, while Zeldin has slim 3-point leads both upstate and in the downstate suburbs,” pollster Steven Greenberg said.

Political experts say a pathway to victory for Zeldin requires winning at least 30% of the vote in Democrat-dominated New York City while winning big in the surrounding suburbs and upstate.

The incumbent governor is up in every demographic category based on race, age and income in the survey of 806 likely voters conducted July 24 to July 28.

Women are favoring Hochul by a whopping 26 points while Hochul and Zeldin have 46% support each among men.

While 36% of New Yorkers believe the Empire State is heading in the right direction, just 19% say they same about the country – an all-time high that could help Republicans like Zeldin campaign on such issues as historically high inflation.

Kathy Hochul
Gov. Kathy Hochul dominates in New York City, leading by nearly 50 points.
Matthew McDermott
Joe Biden
President Joe Biden is receiving mixed reviews from the Democratic Party.
Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker

New Yorkers are split on Democratic President Joe Biden, who is rated as favorable and unfavorable by 46% of respondents to the Siena poll.

The results of the poll are similar to a separate survey released Tuesday morning by Emerson College Polling, which showed Hochul with a 16-point edge over Zeldin, with similar margins separating the candidates in New York City and other regions of the state.

While Zeldin appears to be falling short of his electoral targets, he appears better positioned at this point in the race compared to other recent GOP nominees.

A 2018 Siena poll showed Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Republican, was 22 points behind Democratic incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo weeks after they won their respective party primaries, held in September that year.

lee zeldin
NY State Congressman and 2022 candidate for governor Lee Zeldin has slim 3-point leads both upstate and in the downstate suburbs.
J. Messerschmidt/NY Post

“While Democrats have taken the last four gubernatorial elections, Zeldin’s current 14-point deficit matches the closest Republicans have come in those races, when Andrew Cuomo defeated Rob Astorino 54-40% in 2014. In August 2014, Cuomo led Astorino by 32 points , 58-26%,” Greenberg said in the press release.

But Zeldin has ground to make up if he wants to replicate the success of George Pataki, the last Republican to serve as governor.

Republican challenger George Pataki led Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo by 3 points statewide – with an 11-point edge in New York City – in an October 1994 poll conducted by The New York Times/WCBS-TV News ahead of Pataki’s upset victory over the three-term incumbent that November.

Other GOP candidates on the statewide ticket in November 2022 appear to face even longer odds than Zeldin of becoming the first Republican to win a statewide election since Pataki won his third term in office in 2002.

United States Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is leading in his race.
Rod Lamkey / CNP / MediaPunch

US Sen. Chuck Schumer and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli have 21-point leads in their respective races against Republican nominee Joe Pinion, a former Newsmax host, and banker Paul Rodriguez, according to the Siena poll.

State Attorney General Letitia James is 14 points ahead of commercial litigator Michael Henry in her own reelection bid.

Hochul has raised more than $34 million in her bid to become the first woman to get elected governor after taking over last August for ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid multiple scandals.

Campaign finance disclosures filed in mid-July show her with $11.7 million on hand to spend for the campaign ahead compared to $1.6 million for Zeldin.

handguns
Hochul has advocated for stricter gun control after a major Supreme Court decision last month.
AP/Philip Kamrass

In recent months, she has campaigned heavily on abortion rights and gun control following controversial decisions by the US Supreme Court that might be weighing down Republicans’ chances in the Empire State this November.

“Although a small majority of Republicans support the Dobbs decision, it is opposed by 89% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and at least of 62% of voters from every region, age group, gender, and race,” Greenberg said in reference to the recent SCOTUS decision on abortion.

“Support for the new law expanding eligibility requirements to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon – background checks with character references and firearms safety training courses – is through the roof with all demographic groups,” he added about new state laws passed following another ruling striking down long time New York rules on carrying concealed weapons.

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First on CNN: Top economists say Democrats’ health care and climate package will put ‘downward pressure on inflation’

First on CNN: Top economists say Democrats' health care and climate package will put 'downward pressure on inflation'

“This historic legislation makes crucial investments in energy, health care, and in shoring up the nation’s tax system. These investments will fight inflation and lower costs for American families while setting the stage for strong, stable, and broadly-shared long-term economic growth,” 126 economists said in a letter sent to congressional leadership Tuesday, which was first obtained by CNN.

The letter was signed by key economists including former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Obama Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Obama Labor Department chief economist Betsey Stevenson, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf, and Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, among others.

“This started to come together late last week with some of the signatories connecting with each other to discuss how they could highlight the economic value of the bill and push back on some of the economic disinformation surrounding it,” a familiar source said of the letter .

The economists touted the bill’s historic $369 billion investments in combating the climate crisis and, they wrote, it will “quickly and notably bring down health care costs for families” by allowing Medicare to negotiate certain prescription drug prices, along with extensions to expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Those investments, the group wrote, “would be more than fully paid for,” pointing to its provision to impose a 15% minimum tax on certain corporations.

“This proposal addresses some of the country’s biggest challenges at a significant scale. And because it is deficit-reducing, it does so while putting downward pressure on inflation,” the economists said.

That relief comes as prices continue to rise, with inflation hitting 40-year highs. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that inflation surged to a pandemic-era peak in June, with US consumer prices jumping by 9.1% year-over-year.
The bill, which was negotiated by moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, is currently undergoing a technical process with the Senate parliamentarian known as the “Byrd Bath,” a test designed to keep out extraneous provisions from legislation using the reconciliation process. Once the legislation has gone through that process, Democrats should be able to pass the bill with a simple majority. It remains to be seen, however, whether key holdout Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a moderate Democrat from Arizona, will vote with her party on the legislation.

Schumer said Monday he expects the parliamentarian’s process to be complete and for the Senate to vote on the bill this week ahead of the August recess.

“This week the Senate will take action on a groundbreaking piece of legislation, one that we haven’t seen in decades,” he said on the Senate floor. “Over the coming days, both sides will continue conversations with the parliamentarian in order to move forward the bipartisan ‘Byrd bath’ process. Our timeline has not changed, and I expect to bring this legislation to the Senate floor to begin voting this week. “

Here's what to watch as Senate Democrats try to pass energy and health bill
Some economists have said the legislation would do little to curb rapidly rising prices, particularly in the short term. Moody’s Analytics estimates that the legislation would have a “small” impact on inflation, and the Penn Wharton Budget Model also indicated it would have little impact on prices.
And Senate Republicans opposed to the legislation are pointing to an analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which said the bill would raise taxes on Americans.
Kimberly Clausing, one of the signers of the letter and an economist at the UCLA School of Law, disputed the JCT’s analysis, suggesting in a tweet that it was incomplete.

“Many key factors are left out in these tables including, importantly, the effects of deficit reduction, the positive effects of the spending on clean energy, and the benefits from lower drug prices,” Clausing wrote.

CNN’s Tami Luhby, Matthew Egan, and Ali Zaslav contributed to this report.

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NY Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Rep. Lee Zeldin by 14 points ahead of Nov. 8 election: Poll

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Rep. Lee Zeldin by 14 points ahead of Nov. 8 election: Poll

A new Siena College poll shows Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul with a 14-point lead over Republican nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

“Hochul dominates in New York City, leading by nearly 50 points, while Zeldin has slim 3-point leads both upstate and in the downstate suburbs,” pollster Steven Greenberg said.

Political experts say a pathway to victory for Zeldin requires winning at least 30% of the vote in Democrat-dominated New York City while winning big in the surrounding suburbs and upstate.

The incumbent governor is up in every demographic category based on race, age and income in the survey of 806 likely voters conducted July 24 to July 28.

Women are favoring Hochul by a whopping 26 points while Hochul and Zeldin have 46% support each among men.

While 36% of New Yorkers believe the Empire State is heading in the right direction, just 19% say they same about the country – an all-time high that could help Republicans like Zeldin campaign on such issues as historically high inflation.

Kathy Hochul
Gov. Kathy Hochul dominates in New York City, leading by nearly 50 points.
Matthew McDermott
Joe Biden
President Joe Biden is receiving mixed reviews from the Democratic Party.
Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker

New Yorkers are split on Democratic President Joe Biden, who is rated as favorable and unfavorable by 46% of respondents to the Siena poll.

The results of the poll are similar to a separate survey released Tuesday morning by Emerson College Polling, which showed Hochul with a 16-point edge over Zeldin, with similar margins separating the candidates in New York City and other regions of the state.

While Zeldin appears to be falling short of his electoral targets, he appears better positioned at this point in the race compared to other recent GOP nominees.

A 2018 Siena poll showed Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Republican, was 22 points behind Democratic incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo weeks after they won their respective party primaries, held in September that year.

lee zeldin
NY State Congressman and 2022 candidate for governor Lee Zeldin has slim 3-point leads both upstate and in the downstate suburbs.
J. Messerschmidt/NY Post

“While Democrats have taken the last four gubernatorial elections, Zeldin’s current 14-point deficit matches the closest Republicans have come in those races, when Andrew Cuomo defeated Rob Astorino 54-40% in 2014. In August 2014, Cuomo led Astorino by 32 points , 58-26%,” Greenberg said in the press release.

But Zeldin has ground to make up if he wants to replicate the success of George Pataki, the last Republican to serve as governor.

Republican challenger George Pataki led Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo by 3 points statewide – with an 11-point edge in New York City – in an October 1994 poll conducted by The New York Times/WCBS-TV News ahead of Pataki’s upset victory over the three-term incumbent that November.

Other GOP candidates on the statewide ticket in November 2022 appear to face even longer odds than Zeldin of becoming the first Republican to win a statewide election since Pataki won his third term in office in 2002.

United States Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is leading in his race.
Rod Lamkey / CNP / MediaPunch

US Sen. Chuck Schumer and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli have 21-point leads in their respective races against Republican nominee Joe Pinion, a former Newsmax host, and banker Paul Rodriguez, according to the Siena poll.

State Attorney General Letitia James is 14 points ahead of commercial litigator Michael Henry in her own reelection bid.

Hochul has raised more than $34 million in her bid to become the first woman to get elected governor after taking over last August for ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid multiple scandals.

Campaign finance disclosures filed in mid-July show her with $11.7 million on hand to spend for the campaign ahead compared to $1.6 million for Zeldin.

handguns
Hochul has advocated for stricter gun control after a major Supreme Court decision last month.
AP/Philip Kamrass

In recent months, she has campaigned heavily on abortion rights and gun control following controversial decisions by the US Supreme Court that might be weighing down Republicans’ chances in the Empire State this November.

“Although a small majority of Republicans support the Dobbs decision, it is opposed by 89% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and at least of 62% of voters from every region, age group, gender, and race,” Greenberg said in reference to the recent SCOTUS decision on abortion.

“Support for the new law expanding eligibility requirements to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon – background checks with character references and firearms safety training courses – is through the roof with all demographic groups,” he added about new state laws passed following another ruling striking down long time New York rules on carrying concealed weapons.

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