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Convicted US Capitol rioter’s son says he ‘absolutely’ agrees with father’s sentence

Convicted US Capitol rioter's son says he 'absolutely' agrees with father's sentence

“I mean, I’m not happy at all. I haven’t been happy to this whole situation. No one in my family has either, but to say I’m surprised would be a lie,” Jackson Reffitt told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day” Tuesday in reaction to his father’s sentence. “I mean, everything my dad did, he’s his own person. And his action has consequences. But I’m not happy at all.”

Guy Refitt, a recruiter for a right-wing militia known as the Three Percenters, was sentenced to serve more than seven years in prison, the longest insurrection-related sentence to date.

He had been convicted by a DC jury in March of five felonies — wanting to obstruct the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election, transporting guns into DC, carrying a handgun onto Capitol grounds, interfering with Capitol Police protecting the Upper West Terrace and obstructing justice by threatening his daughter and son, who had turned him into the FBI.

“I mean, realistically, this doesn’t have a matter of political opinion. What my father did is far from politics. This is completely off the rails violence. Whether it had a political motive at this point doesn’t matter. It’s more about what he does and who he did it for,” Jackson Reffitt told Keilar.

His father, Reffitt argued, was “used as a puppet” for Donald Trump, adding of the then-President: “It is disgusting to see that someone with … money and social power can just get away with manipulating thousands of people just for whatever reason, and have no outcome.”
During the trial, Capitol Police officers testified about battling Guy Reffitt outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and prosecutors called him a leader of the crowd. He also recorded a video on January 6 in which he made threatening comments about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

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Aug. 10 primary elections: What to expect in Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Washington

Aug. 10 primary elections: What to expect in Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Washington

The meddling has come under fire from not only Meijer, but Democrats worried it will undermine their attempts to criticize extremism in the GOP and backfire in the November elections.

On the Democratic side, Michigan is home to a handful of competitive House primaries, including one that pits a pair of incumbents, Reps. Haley Stevens and Andy Levin, against one another in a campaign that has attracted heavy investments from competing pro-Israel groups.

Kansas, meanwhile, will host one of the first major post-Roe votes when the state conducts a referendum to determine whether its constitution protects the right to an abortion. If the measure succeeds, state lawmakers are expected to quickly move to enshrine a ban.

Here are eight things to watch on Tuesday:

Arizona governor primary pits Trump against Pence

The race to replace term-limited Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, pits Ducey’s chosen candidate, Karrin Taylor Robson, against a Trump-endorsed former television journalist Kari Lake.

Lake has built her campaign around lies about election fraud. She referred to the refusal of her leading rival, Ducey-backed Robson, to indulge those lies as “disqualifying.”

Robson, meanwhile, is also backed by former Vice President Mike Pence, who visited Arizona to campaign with Robson and Ducey last month on the same day Trump held a rally at which Lake spoke.

Pence used his Arizona trip to urge the GOP to move past Trump’s lies about fraud in the 2020 election and look forward.

“When you get out and vote for Karrin Taylor Robson, you can send a deafening message that will be heard all across America that the Republican Party is the party of the future,” Pence said in Peoria, Arizona.

Arizona GOP could pick full slate of election deniers

Beyond the governor’s office, the Arizona GOP could be poised to nominate a statewide ticket of Trump-backed election deniers on Tuesday.

The race for secretary of state — Arizona’s chief elections officer — also features an election denier endorsed by Trump in Mark Finchem, a state lawmaker who wrongly claims that Trump on the 2020 election and was in Washington January 6.

Trump-backed Blake Masters, who is seeking to face Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly hasn’t just claimed that Democrats “pulled out all the stops” to cheat in 2020, but has suggested the 2022 midterms won’t be fair. Masters faces other Republicans who have rejected the 2020 election outcome, including businessman Jim Lamon, who touts his efforts to fund the bogus review of Maricopa County’s 2020 results. Another Senate candidate, state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, sent a letter claiming to have uncovered election fraud, without detailing any fraud in how the election was managed.

Trump’s chosen candidate in the race for attorney general, Abraham Hamadeh, said he would “take the fraud in our 2020 election seriously and bring justice to those who’ve undermined our Republic.”

Meijer faces Dem-backed, far-right challenge

Rep. Peter Meijer, the freshman Republican from western Michigan who was one of his party’s 10 House members to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, is facing off against a Trump-endorsed challenger in John Gibbs.

Gibbs has fully embraced Trump’s election lies. He wrongly claimed in a debate with Meijer that the results that led to Biden’s win in 2020 were “simply mathematically impossible” and said that there were “anomalies in there, to put it very lightly.”

What’s unique about the GOP contest in the Grand Rapids-based 3rd District is that Democrats have attempted to boost Gibbs with ads casting him as a Trump-aligned conservative.

It’s a calculated gamble for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has spent more than $300,000 on ads in the race: They believe Gibbs would be much easier to defeat in November, so they are attempting to elevate him Tuesday, and then turn and immediately cast him as a threat to democracy in the general election.

A pro-Meijer group launched a television ad over the weekend highlighting Democrats’ involvement in the Republican primary. “Fox News confirms it: Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect their hand-picked candidate for Congress in the Republican primary, John Gibbs,” the group’s ad warns. “West Michigan must say no to Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked candidate for Congress.”

Trump hedges on scandal-plagued Greitens in Missouri

A little more than four years ago, Eric Greitens resigned as Missouri governor as he faced an ethical probe and allegations he abused and tried to blackmail a woman with whom he had an affair. Prosecutors ultimately dropped felony charges.

More recently, his ex-wife accused him of violent and unstable behavior in a court filing related to a child custody dispute. (Greitens denied the claims.)

Now, the former Navy SEAL is one of the frontrunners in what recent polling suggests will be a tight Missouri GOP Senate primary, with a field that includes Greitens, state Attorney General Eric Schmitt and US Rep. Vicky Hartzler.

Even Trump, whom Greitens has sought to align himself with, is hedging — likely because he fears Greitens could be defeated in a general election. On Monday evening, Trump put out a statement endorsing “Eric.” Which one? On that question, Trump wrote, Missouri Republicans would need to “make up their own minds.”

Rep. Billy Long, Missouri state Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz and Mark McCloskey, a lawyer who became famous after he and wife wielded firearms from their property as a protest against police violence passed by in June 2020, are also part of a crowded field of Republican hopefuls.

Democrats will choose from Trudy Busch Valentine, a retired nurse and beer fortune heiress; attorney and Marine veteran Lucas Kunce; and Spencer Toder in their primary.

Abortion on the ballot for the first time since SCOTUS decision

For the first time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the right to an abortion will be on a ballot.

Kansas voters will decide, via a somewhat convoluted question, whether to keep the constitution as is, which the state Supreme Court previously ruled protects abortion rights — a “no” vote — or vote “yes” and change the state’s constitution to specify that the right to an abortion is not guaranteed in the state.

The vote, in addition to being key to the future of abortions in Kansas, is widely seen as a referendum on whether abortion politics have truly shifted in the wake of the Supreme Court decision earlier this year. Democrats are hopeful that the decision has invigorated voters to oppose anti-abortion measures.

This will be part of a big election year in Kansas. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who opposed the amendment, is up for reelection in November, representing one of the most vulnerable Democratic gubernatorial incumbents in the country.

“The amendment is written in such a way that the proponents of the amendment want to suggest that this would just leave things as they are in Kansas. But that’s not true,” Kelly said in late July. “What would happen if that amendment would pass is that the Legislature would immediately come back with some very severe restrictions on a woman’s ability to control her own fate.”

Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who is all but certain to be the party’s nominee for governor, has said he would vote yes for the amendment.

Whitmer gets her challenger

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was on the short list for Biden’s vice presidential nod less than two years into her first term, gets her Republican challenger in Tuesday’s primary.

Trump on Friday endorsed Tudor Dixon, a conservative commentator who has falsely claimed that Trump won the 2020 election. She is also backed by Michigan’s GOP establishment, including former US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s family, the state Chamber of Commerce and Michigan Right to Life.

That GOP gubernatorial primary features several other election deniers, as well. One candidate, Ryan Kelley, was in Washington on January 6, 2021, and has pleaded not guilty to four misdemeanor charges stemming from allegations of his participation in the riot at the Capitol. Retired pastor Ralph Rebandt said he is “convinced that we would find the fraud” in the 2020 election with a “full forensic audit.” And chiropractor Garrett Soldano has touted a film that promotes an unproven conspiracy theory about the 2020 election.

Republicans in Michigan are poised to nominate election deniers for their entire slate of statewide offices.

The party is also expected to pick Trump-backed election deniers in the races for secretary of state and attorney general. At a convention in April, the state GOP endorsed Kristina Karamo, an educator and right-wing commentator who claimed to have witnessed irregularities in 2020’s election, for secretary of state, and Matthew DePerno, who was a lawyer on a case challenging the 2020 results , for attorney general. But those races aren’t on Tuesday’s primary ballot; instead, Republicans will make their choices official at a party convention in August.

Democratic House incumbents clash after redistricting draws them into new district

Redistricting in Michigan laid the groundwork for a Stevens-Levin contest in the state’s newly-drawn 11th Congressional District. Both candidates have claims to the seat, though some moderate Democrats expressed frustration that Levin did n’t try his hand at him in the open 10th District.

But the bigger story here has been animated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee involvement and spending by its new super PAC, United Democracy Project, with the latter having backed Stevens with more than $4 million in outside expenditures.

Levin, a Jewish progressive whose family has a storied history in Michigan politics, now enters primary day as an underdog despite a late boost from J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group attempting to blunt some of AIPAC’s influence with an ad buy worth about $700,000 .

Notably, Israel policy has not been a theme — it’s barely mentioned — in either candidate’s campaigns or the ads from the competing groups. But Levin, the lead sponsor of the Two-State Solution Act, has been more willing to criticize the Israeli government.

Progressives have been scathing in their criticism of Democrats, like Stevens, who have accepted help from AIPAC, which also contributes to Republicans, including many who voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 election win. (AIPAC has essentially ignored the backlash, pointing to the Democrats it backs and saying it can’t advance its policy goals without bipartisan support.)

Another well-known progressive, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, has attracted less attention from pro-Israel groups and, despite an influence of moderate outside cash against her, is the favorite to win nomination again in the redrawn 12th District.

How much does Trump’s impeachment still matter?

A lot has changed in the last 18 months since Trump was impeached for a second time. But two Republican incumbents — Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse — will face voters for the first time since joining Democrats to impeach the then-President.

A flurry of factors — not only how removed politics is from that impeachment vote — have Republicans in Washington skeptical that both Herrera Beutler and Newhouse will be ousted: Both incumbents have outspent their challengers, the fields are large and fractured and Washington State’s open primary system allows people to vote for any candidate, regardless of affiliation.

“If the vote was held a month (after the impeachment decision), they probably would have lost,” said a top Washington Republican operative. “But given 9% inflation, given the high gas prices we saw, if you are talking with conservative voters, they may be more concerned with the current situation in the country than they are 16 or 18 months ago.”

Herrera Beutler is facing author Heidi St. John, who has received a burst of super PAC money; state Rep. Vicki Kraft; and retired special forces officer Joe Kent, who Trump has backed. While Newhouse faces former NASCAR driver Jarod Sessler, state Rep. Brad Klippert and vocal election denier Loren Culp, who has been endorsed by Trump.

Herrera Beutler and Newhouse aren’t the only decisions for Republicans on Tuesday. The party will also look to nominate a candidate to face Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. Tiffany Smiley is seen as the leading Republican in the race, but Washington voters have not been represented by a Republican in the Senate since 2001.

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Biden’s COVID sequel: back on the balcony, dog for company

Biden's COVID sequel: back on the balcony, dog for company

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s back to the White House balcony and the Treaty Room for President Joe Biden as he contends with a “rebound” case of COVID-19.

Trapped in the White House for the second time in as many weeks, the president knows the drill this time: He’s got an office in the residence and his dog Commander to keep him company while he governs by Zoom and FaceTime.

Biden’s latest bout with COVID-19 came with a new wrinkle: how to announce a major counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan from isolation.

Biden, dressed in a dark suit and red tie, walked to a lecture that had been wheeled onto the balcony of the Blue Room on Monday evening and informed the American people of the killing of Ayman al-Zawahri, the top al-Qaida leader, in a US strike in Afghanistan over the weekend.

The White House allowed just one print reporter to watch Biden deliver his speech, by looking through a window in the adjacent Red Room. A TV cameraman filmed the president and a still photographer took photos — a smaller footprint than the group of journalists that is usually at the president’s appearances.

Biden’s initial COVID-19 diagnosis left him with a lingering cough and runny nose, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. His rebound case from him — labeled such because he tested positive on Saturday just three days after being cleared from isolation with two negative tests last Tuesday and Wednesday — has left him antsy about returning to a normal schedule.

Biden’s rebound disrupted a trip home to Wilmington, Delaware, to meet with first lady Jill Biden, who has been there since Biden’s initial diagnosis. A trip Tuesday to Michigan to promote a $280 billion high-tech manufacturing bill he intends to sign was also scuttled.

Instead, Biden is stuck in COVID-19 isolation through at least Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, and perhaps longer under the White House’s stricter protocols, which require a negative test to return to work.

“He’s someone who likes to be out there with the American people,” said Jean-Pierre on Monday. “He’s looking forward to being out there again.”

White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a Monday letter that the president “continues to feel well” this time around, even as he tests positive.

Shortly after Saturday’s announcement that he was returning to isolation, the president tweeted a picture of himself masked, tieless and signing a declaration that added individual assistance for flood survivors in Kentucky.

He followed up by tweeting a 12-second video of himself on a White House balcony with Commander.

“I’m feeling fine, everything is good,” said Biden, a pair of aviator sunglasses in his hand. “But Commander and I got a little work to do.”

Minutes later, he called Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough on FaceTime as he visited with people camping outside the US Capitol in a bid for health benefits for military veterans exposed to toxic substances from burn pits during their service.

Biden tweeted that he had planned to visit the group in person on Saturday before he tested positive again, but instead sent McDonough with a delivery of pizza. I have invited the advocates to the White House once he’s cleared by his doctors to receive visitors.

“It doesn’t stop him from doing his job and doing the work of the American people,” Jean-Pierre said of the president’s rebound infection.

During his course of isolation, Biden told reporters that his canine companion served as his alarm clock while the first lady was away.

“Matter of fact, my dog ​​had to wake me up this morning,” he said last Tuesday. “My wife’s not here. She usually takes him out in the morning while I’m upstairs working out. And so, I felt this nuzzle of my dog’s nose against my chest about five minutes to seven.”

Biden has been working from the ornate second-floor Treaty Room or stepping onto the adjacent Truman Balcony overlooking the South Grounds and the Washington Monument.

A limited number of essential staff are with him in the residence, including security and medical personnel and a small number of aides, who remain masked for their protection. Biden’s usual in-person meetings, including his daily national security briefing, have shifted to virtual formats.

Plans for enabling a president to work in isolation were first developed when then-President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 in October 2020, which required him to be admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. As the highly infectious omicron variant spread and cases closed in around Biden, his administration refined plans for Biden to carry out his duties while isolating at the White House, according to two aides.

Biden, 79, was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid after he first tested positive on July 21. He tested negative for the virus last Tuesday and Wednesday, July 26 and 27, and was then cleared to leave isolation while wearing a mask indoors. His positive tests of him put him among the minority of those prescribed the drug to experience a rebound case of the virus.

The CDC says most rebound cases remain mild.

Jean-Pierre said 17 people initially identified as close contacts of Biden when he first tested positive, as well as six people deemed at risk from his rebound infection, have continued to test negative for COVID-19.

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Supreme Court certifies ruling ending Trump border policy

Supreme Court certifies ruling ending Trump border policy

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday certified its month-old ruling allowing the Biden administration to end a cornerstone Trump-era border policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in US immigration court, a pro forma act that has drawn attention amid near-total silence from the White House about when, how and even whether it will dismantle the policy.

The two-word docket entry read “judgment issued” to record that justices voted 5-4 in a ruling issued June 30 that the administration could scrap the “Remain in Mexico” policy, overruling a lower court that forced the policy to be reinstated in December.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said shortly after the Supreme Court victory that justices would need to communicate the decision to a lower court, which, in turn, should lift the order to keep the policy in place in a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas. Beyond that, administration officials have said little, including whether any of the thousands subject to the policy since December will be allowed to enter and remain in the United States while their cases are being considered in immigration court.

The White House and Homeland Security Department had no immediate comment on the Supreme Court certification; the Justice Department declined comment. Officials in Mexico had no immediate comment.

About 70,000 migrants were subject to the policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols,” or MPP, from when former President Donald Trump introduced it in January 2019 until President Joe Biden suspended it on his first day in office in January 2021, fulfilling a campaignpromise. Many were allowed to return to the United States to pursue their cases during the early months of Biden’s presidency.

Nearly 5,800 people have been subject to the policy from December through June, according to figures released Friday, a modest number that would make any reluctance to end it seems less plausible. Nicaraguans account for the largest number, with others from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.

A sign posted last week at the entrance to the Salvation Army migrant shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration appeared to best capture the public understanding of the policy’s status: “Wait for official information! The Remain in Mexico (MPP) program remains in effect. The United States government will inform you of any changes.”

Critics of the policy have been increasingly outspoken about the Biden administration’s reticence on “Remain in Mexico,” and Monday’s certification renewed their calls for an immediate end to the policy.

“It’s a zombie policy,” said Karen Tumlin, founder of the Justice Action Center, an immigration litigation organization.

The final move may rest with US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, a Trump appointee whose ruling last year brought “Remain in Mexico” back.

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Trump’s choice in Michigan gubernatorial primary faces criticism that she isn’t ‘MAGA’ enough

Trump's choice in Michigan gubernatorial primary faces criticism that she isn't 'MAGA' enough

Just days before the Tuesday primary, Trump threw his support behind Tudor Dixon, a conservative commentator who has coalesced support from prominent Republicans in the state, even as she beats back criticism that she’s an establishment candidate who isn’t “MAGA” enough to inspire the GOP base.

The Mitten State’s prolonged, often bitter, Republican primary saw a handful of candidates disqualified from the ballot, while another — still in the race — was arrested for his alleged participation in the January 6, 2021, riot. Dixon is up against a handful of Trumpian candidates, some of whom have fully embraced the former President’s lies about the 2020 election.
Dixon’s embrace of those falsehoods has been more tepid. In a May debate, she raised her hand and confirmed, yes, she did believe Trump won Michigan — a state he lost by more than 154,000 votes in 2020. But in an interview with CNN, she offered a more muted response.

“I’ve talked about this at length, about the 2020 election,” Dixon said. “It was unlike any election we had ever seen obviously because of the pandemic. But in Michigan, there were some things that happened in Michigan that didn’t happen in other states, which are very concerning.”

In interviews with CNN, Dixon’s opponents quickly slammed her for appearing to water down her views on the 2020 election.

Garrett Soldano, a chiropractor vying for the GOP nomination, panned Dixon for dodging the 2020 election question and doubled down on his support for the former President.

“The election, in my humble opinion, was stolen,” he said in an interview. “I’m not even endorsed by President Trump, and I still have his back from him.”

Soldano then turned his stare straight down the lens of a CNN camera, seemingly hoping to address Trump directly.

“Even though, sir, you didn’t endorse me, you’re still my President,” Soldano said.

Businessman-turned-candidate Kevin Rinke also bashed Dixon for dancing around election falsehoods.

“She got an endorsement and within 48 hours when she was asked on national TV if the election was stolen, she changed her mind,” Rinke said. “That’s what politicians do. Tudor Dixon is the Republican version of Gretchen Whitmer — ‘I’ll say anything, I’ll do anything for position and power,'” he said referring to the state’s Democratic governor.

Rinke didn’t go so far as to claim the election was stolen and acknowledged that Joe Biden is the President. Still, he said he believes there were “irregularities” in 2020.

Meantime, Ryan Kelley, a real estate broker in the race, has essentially turned his arrest for allegedly participating in the Capitol riot into a campaign rallying cry.

“Look how hard these people are trying to silence me,” Kelley said in a July GOP primary debate. “I got arrested. I got kicked off Airbnb.”

He has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges he faces and has continued to falsely claim Trump won in 2020.

Republican activists here have rallied behind Trump-loving, election-denying candidates. At an endorsement convention earlier this year, Republicans backed Kristina Karamo for secretary of state and Matthew DePerno for attorney general, paving their path for official nominations later this year. If they win in November, they would be in key positions to oversee the state’s elections.

But the prospect of having Dixon atop the ticket has rankled some Trump supporters, particularly when it comes to her less-than-enthusiastic embrace of the election falsehoods fueling the base.

“I think she’s given lip service to President Trump and his supporters on those issues but only when truly pushed,” GOP political strategist John Yob said in an interview.

“President Trump is still very popular with conservative voters, so I think that his endorsement will definitely have an impact on this race,” Yob said. “However, it also puts things in a bit of a precarious situation with some of his supporters of him being left dazed and confused because they’ve been behind other, maybe more MAGA-centric, candidates and now all of a sudden he’s endorsed the establishment.”

The former President’s team doesn’t share the concern that Dixon may not be as vocal on election issues, said a person close to Trump.

Dixon has largely shrugged off the criticism.

“I think that’s interesting,” she said of the election-related barbs from her GOP opponents, “because my Democrat opponents actually have a whole thing — a whole list of reasons they hate me because of the election, right? I guess it’s just a campaign tactic.”

Dixon said she believed she could get a boost from the Trump endorsement but declined to say whether she would back him if he runs again for president in 2024, insisting that she is focused on 2022.

“I feel honored to get the endorsement. It feels like we’re really bringing everybody in the Republican Party together,” she said. “So, we feel really good about how Tuesday is going to end up, but we’re still fighting.”

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Democrat Sinema’s views on economic bill remain shrouded

Democrat Sinema's views on economic bill remain shrouded

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s views remained a mystery Monday as party leaders eyed votes later this week on their emerging economic legislation and both parties pointed to dueling studies they used to either laud or belittle the measure’s impact.

With Democrats needing all of their 50 votes for the energy and health care measure to move through the Senate, a Sinema spokesperson suggested the Arizona lawmaker would take her time revealing her decision. Hannah Hurley said Sinema was reviewing the bill and “will need to see what comes out of the parliamentarian process.” It could take days for the chamber’s rules umpire to decide whether the measure flouts procedural guidelines and needs changes.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., announced an agreement last week on legislation increasing taxes on huge corporations and wealthy individuals, bolstering fossil fuels and climate change efforts and curbing pharmaceutical prices. Overall, it would raise $739 billion over 10 years in revenue and spend $433 billion, leaving over $300 billion to modestly reduce federal deficits.

The legislation would give President Joe Biden a victory on his domestic agenda in the runup to this fall’s congressional elections. If Sinema demands changes, she would face enormous pressure to reach an accord with top Democrats and avoid a campaign-season defeat that would be a jarring blow to her party’s prospects in November.

Manchin is one of Congress’ most conservative and contrarian Democrats. He has spent over a year forcing his party to starkly trim his economic proposals, citing inflation fears, and his compromise with Schumer last week shocked colleagues who’d given up hope that he would agree to such a wide-ranging measure.

Sinema has played a lower-profile but similar role as Manchin — a lawmaker who can be unpredictable and willing to use the leverage all Democrats have in a 50-50 Senate. Last year, she lauded a proposal for a minimum tax on large corporations — which the new legislation has — but has also expressed opposition to increasing corporate or individual tax rates.

“She has a lot in this bill,” Manchin, citing her support for past efforts to rein prices for prescription drugs, told reporters Monday. He said she’s been “very adamant” about not increasing taxes, adding, “I feel the same way.”

Manchin has asserted the bill’s imposition of a 15% minimum tax on corporations earning over $1 billion annually is not a tax increase. He says it closes loopholes such companies use to escape paying the current 21% corporate tax.

Republicans mocked that reasoning and said its tax increases would weaken the economy and kill jobs. They cited a report from Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation that said about half of the corporate minimum tax would hit manufacturing firms.

“So in the middle of a supply chain crisis, Democrats want huge job-killing tax hikes that will disproportionately crush American manufacturing and manufacturing jobs,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Biden has said he will not raise taxes on people earning under $400,000 annually. Manchin has said the Democratic package honors that pledge.

Republicans recently distributed another Joint Committee on Taxation analysis that said the measure would raise taxes on people earning below that figure. Democrats criticized the study as incomplete, saying it omitted the impact on middle-class families of the bill’s health insurance subsidies and clean energy tax cuts.

Democrats touted a report by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. It said the measure “will nudge the economy and inflation in the right direction, while meaningfully addressing climate change and reducing the government’s budget deficits.”

Schumer said he expected votes to begin this week in the Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the tie-breaking vote to assure its passage. The narrowly divided House has left town for an August recess, but Democratic leaders have said they would bring lawmakers back for a vote, perhaps next week.

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Mark McGowan v Clive Palmer trial judgment finds both guilty of defamation

Mark McGowan v Clive Palmer trial judgment finds both guilty of defamation

Premier Mark McGowan and billionaire Clive Palmer have been found to have defamed each other during their vicious war of words in 2020 — but the harm done was minor, according to the Federal Court — as they were the damages awarded.

Delivering his judgment today, Justice Michael Lee said the defenses of both sides to allegations of defamation had failed — and the back-and-forth barbs had been defamatory.

But because the Federal Court judge found that both were involved in political argument — as nasty as it was — finding “real or material” damage was almost impossible.

He declined to award claimed aggravated damages to Mr Palmer, and said he could not find he suffered any real damage from Mr McGowan’s comments.

He assessed the damage to Mr Palmer’s reputation warranted an award of $5,000.

And Justice Lee then pointed to Mr McGowan’s landslide election victory as to the fact his reputation was not damaged by Mr Palmer — and might actually have been enhanced.

However, he said Mr Palmer’s comments warranted an award of $20,000 to the Premier.

In summing up the case, Justice Lee said arguments that neither side was involved in political posturing was “unpersuasive and superficial”.

He said amid the feud, the pair had both taken the opportunities to advance their political stance — particularly Mr McGowan, who he said “had a bully pulpit”.

And he concluded the “game had not been worth the candle” — taking up valuable resources from the court and the WA taxpayer.

“These proceedings have not only involved considerable expenditure by Mr Palmer and the taxpayers of Western Australia, but have also consumed considerable resources of the Commonwealth and, importantly, diverted Court time from resolving controversies of real importance to persons who have a pressing need to litigate ,” Justice Lee said.

“At a time when public resources devoted to courts are under strain, and judicial resources are stretched, one might think that only a significant interference or attack causing real reputational damage and significant hurt to feelings should be subject of an action for defamation by a political figure.”

The defamation case between the Premier and the billionaire stemmed from public barbs traded more than two years ago, as the pandemic was still spreading — and with Mr Palmer’s $30 billion claim against WA not yet public.

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Who was al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri?

Who was al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri?

Zawahiri, 71, was a key architect behind multiple assaults on the US, and was “deeply involved” in the planning of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Biden said.

“People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer. The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm,” Biden said from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House.

Here’s what you need to know about Zawahiri and the US’ strike against him.

Born in 1951, Zawahiri grew up in an upper-class neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a prominent physician and grandson of renowned scholars.

His grandfather, Rabia’a ​​al-Zawahiri, was an imam at al-Azhar University in Cairo. His great-uncle of him, Abdel Rahman Azzam, was the first secretary of the Arab League.

Zawahiri was imprisoned for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

“We want to speak to the whole world. Who are we? Who are we?” he said in a jailhouse interview.

By that time, Zawahiri, a young doctor, was already a committed terrorist who conspired to overthrow the Egyptian government for years and sought to replace it with fundamentalist Islamic rule. He proudly endorsed Sadat’s assassination after the Egyptian leader made peace with Israel.

What was his relationship with Osama bin Laden?

Zawahiri left Egypt in 1985 and made his way to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he worked as a surgeon treating the fighters who were engaged with Soviet troops in Afghanistan.

That is where Zawahiri met bin Laden, a prominent Mujahedeen leader and who also had left behind a privileged upbringing to join the fight in Afghanistan. The two became close, linked by their common bond as “Afghan Arabs.”

After reuniting in Afghanistan, bin Laden and Zawahiri appeared together in early 1998 announcing the formation of the World Islamic Front for the Jihad Against the Jews and the Crusaders — formally merging the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda.

At one point, I acted as bin Laden’s personal physician.

“We are working with brother bin Laden,” he said in announcing the merger of his terror group in May 1998. “We know him since more than 10 years now. We fought with him here in Afghanistan.”

Osama bin Laden sits with Ayman al-Zawahiri on November 10, 2001.

Together, the two terror leaders signed a fatwa, or declaration: “The judgment to kill and fight Americans and their allies, whether civilians or military, is an obligation for every Muslim.”

What role did Zawahiri play in al Qaeda’s attacks against the US?

The attacks against the US and its facilities began shortly after bin Laden and Zawahiri’s fatwa, with the suicide bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 5,000 others.

Then, there was the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, when suicide bombers on a dinghy detonated their boat, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 others.

The culmination of Zawahiri’s terror plotting came on September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A fourth hijacked airliner, headed for Washington, crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back.

Before and after the September 11 attacks, Zawahiri appeared on numerous video and audiotapes calling for attacks against Western targets and urging Muslims to support his cause.

Some Egyptians traced Zawahiri’s anger toward the United States to what many Afghan Arabs felt was the CIA’s betrayal to support their cause after the Soviets left Afghanistan and the country slipped into tribal anarchy.

Others date Zawahiri’s wrath to 1998, when US officials pushed for the extradition of a number of Egyptian Islamic Jihad members from Albania to stand trial in Egypt for terrorism.

Zawahiri’s brother, Mohammad, told CNN in 2012, “Before you call me and my brother terrorists, let’s define its meaning. If it means those who are bloodthirsty merciless killers, then this is not what we are about,” he said.

“We only try to regain some of our rights that have been hijacked by Western powers throughout history.”

When did Zawahiri start leading al Qaeda?

Zawahiri became al Qaeda’s leader after US forces killed bin Laden in 2011.

He was constantly on the move once the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks. At one point, he narrowly escaped a US onslaught in the rugged, mountainous Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, an attack that left his wife and children dead.

Zawahiri “was not a charismatic leader in the mold of bin Laden,” CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said Monday. “He didn’t prove to be a very competent leader of al-Qaeda. But the reason I think that he was killed in Afghanistan over the weekend was he was beginning to take a lot more risks.”

“According to the United Nations, he’d released kind of an unprecedented number of videos. Every time you record a video, there’s the chain of custody of that video, getting it out there, somebody maybe taking the video,” Bergen continued.

“So he was becoming more prominent. And, I think, it seems to me that may well have been the reason that he was detected.”

In a briefing by a United Nations panel of experts last week it was noted that Zawahiri’s apparent increased comfort and ability to communicate has coincided with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the consolidation of power of key al-Qaeda allies within their de-facto administration.

The last known public address by Zawahiri was an audio message released on July 13 by the media arm of al Qaeda.

How did the US kill Zawahiri?

The US undertook “a precision counterterrorism operation” in Afghanistan targeting Zawahiri, who was sheltering in a safehouse in Kabul, a senior administration told reporters Monday.

According to the official, “a precise tailored airstrike” using two hellfire missiles was conducted at 9:48 pm ET on Saturday, July 30 — 6:18 am Kabul time — via unmanned air strike and was authorized by Biden following weeks of meetings with his Cabinet and key advisers.

No American personnel were on the ground in Kabul at the time of the strike.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Kylie Atwood, Natasha Bertrand and Donald Judd contributed to this report.

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Arizona official refutes review that counted 282 dead voters

Arizona official refutes review that counted 282 dead voters

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Monday his investigators found just one dead voter after thoroughly reviewing findings from a partisan review of the 2020 election that alleged 282 ballots were cast in the name of someone who had died.

The finding by the Republican attorney general, who is running for the US Senate in Tuesday’s primary, further discredits the review conducted last year. The review was led by an inexperienced firm, Cyber ​​Ninjas, and conducted largely by supporters of Donald Trump who falsely believe the election was stolen from him.

“Our agents investigated all individuals that Cyber ​​Ninjas reported as dead, and many were very surprised to learn that they were allegedly deceased,” Brnovich wrote in a letter to state Senate President Karen Fann, who used her subpoena power to obtain ballots, tabulators and election data and hired Cyber ​​Ninjas for what she called a “forensic audit.”

For the one substantiated incident, “the facts of the case did not support prosecution,” said Ryan Anderson, a spokesman for Brnovich. He said the dead person’s ballot was not counted. None of the three criminal cases the attorney general has filed over dead voters was connected to the Cyber ​​Ninjas investigation, he said.

Brnovich did not say whether any charges had been filed in connection with the one substantiated incident, and his spokesman, Ryan Anderson, did not respond to a phone call and text message. All other people listed by Cyber ​​Ninjas as deceased “were found to be current voters,” Brnovich wrote.

Combined with other reports of dead voters, Brnovich’s Election Integrity Unit investigated a combined 409 names and produced “only a handful of potential cases.”

Brnovich vouched for the legitimacy of the election immediately after President Joe Biden’s victory but later publicized his investigation of the Cyber ​​Ninjas allegations as he sought Trump’s endorsement for his Senate campaign. Trump ultimately released a scathing statement saying Brnovich wasn’t doing enough to advance his claims of fraud and endorsed businessman Blake Masters.

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

The Cyber ​​Ninjas review looked at data, machines and ballots from Maricopa County, the state’s largest. It produced a report that experts described as riddled with errors, bias and flawed methodology. Still, even that partisan review came up with a vote tally that would not have altered the outcome, finding that Biden won by 360 more votes than the official results.

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Bipartisan compromise bill would restore abortion rights

Bipartisan compromise bill would restore abortion rights

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of senators is pushing compromise legislation to restore abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a long shot effort to put a majority of the Senate on the record opposing the decision.

While the bill is not expected to pass — and is unlikely to even get a vote — the legislation introduced by two Republicans and two Democrats on Monday is intended to send a signal to state legislatures and the public that a majority of the Senate supports codifying Roe , even if they can’t get the necessary 60 votes to pass it in the 50-50 Senate.

“We still think there is utility in showing there is a bipartisan majority that would want to codify Roe,” even though the bill doesn’t have enough votes, said Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who introduced the legislation with Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

The legislation would prohibit most state regulations that prevent abortion access before fetal viability, generally considered to be around 24 weeks. It would allow state restrictions after that point, as long as the mother’s life is protected. It would also protect access to contraception, an issue after Justice Clarence Thomas suggested in a concurring opinion to the decision overturning Roe that decisions guaranteeing access to contraception and other rights may need to be revisited.

The bipartisan bill is narrower than legislation preferred by most Democrats — passed by the House but blocked by Senate Republicans — that would have protected abortion rights and expanded them beyond what was allowed in the landmark 1972 Roe v. wade decision. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Collins and Murkowski all voted against that bill despite opposition to the overturning of Roe.

Kaine said he felt like Democrats “left votes on the table” after that effort. He said he was encouraged by a new law designed to reduce gun violence that passed the House and Senate after horrific shootings in Texas and New York.

“There were not 60 votes either” for that legislation until members decided that inaction was no longer an option, he said.

Democrats would need 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster and get a bill through the 50-50 Senate, but only Collins and Murkowski have publicly backed abortion rights.

By overturning Roe, the court has allowed states to enact strict abortion limits, including many that had previously been deemed unconstitutional. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of the states.

Already, a number of GOP-controlled states have moved quickly to curtail or outlaw abortion, while states controlled by Democrats have sought to champion access. Voters now rank abortion as among the most pressing issues facing the country, a shift in priorities that Democrats hope will reshape the political landscape in their favor for the midterm elections.

The support of Kaine and Sinema, a moderate, comes as some activists have accused President Joe Biden and other top Democrats of failing to respond forcefully enough to the decision.

Kaine said there is an increased sense of urgency since the June decision, and suggested he or others may go to the floor at some point and request a vote, an effort that is unlikely to succeed but could call attention to the bill as majorities of Americans say they disagree with the Supreme Court decision.

“People are paying attention to it,” Kaine said.

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