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Tag: maryland
Alex Jones

Unhinged Theories Erupt On Far Right After Baltimore Bridge Collapse

At a press conference on Tuesday, March 26, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told reporters that there was no sign of terrorism or foul play in the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge — which had been struck by a freighter. According to Moore and the Biden White House, there was no indication that it was anything other than a tragic accident.

But that hasn't stopped far-right conspiracy theorists from claiming otherwise or looking for ways to blame the Biden Administration for the tragedy.Rolling Stone and The Daily Beastgathered some of the more extreme reactions in articles published that Tuesday.

Infowars host Alex Jones remarked, "Looks deliberate to me. A cyber-attack is probable. WW3 has already started."

On Newsmax, American Conservative Union president Matt Schlapp implied that "drug-addled" employees and "lockdowns" during the COVID-19 pandemic were somehow to blame for the bridge's collapse.

Schlapp told Newsmax, "All I would say is that if you talk to employers in America, they'll tell you that filling slots with employees who aren't drug-addled is a very huge problem; so, I'm making no specific charges here because we don't know. But you know, anybody who flies in America can see that you're constantly waiting on a tarmac somewhere for some crew to show up."

On X, formerly Twitter, anti-feminist Andrew Tate posted, "This ship was cyber-attacked. Lights go off and it deliberately steers towards the bridge supports. Foreign agents of the USA attack digital infrastructures. Nothing is safe. Black Swan event imminent.

Fox News' Maria Bartiromo, interviewing Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), tried to link Biden's border policy to the tragedy. And Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), on Newsmax, claimed that Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill was to blame because it overemphasized "Green New Deal" spending.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Harry Dunn

January 6 Hero Cop Running For Congress In Maryland Primary (VIDEO)

Retired Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn announced Friday that he was joining the busy Democratic primary in the race to succeed retiring Rep. John Sarbanes, a declaration that came one day ahead of the third anniversary of the January 6 attack.

"I swore an oath to protect our Constitution, to protect our democracy," Dunn says in his launch video, which features a recreation of the riot.

The candidate, who is Black, continues by describing how he "protect[ed] some members of Congress who I knew were bigots, who helped fan the flames that started all of this. I put country above self." He goes on, "Some of the same people who stood behind us when we protected them went back on the floor of Congress and stood behind Trump."

In 2021, Dunn attracted national attention when he testified before Congress that rioters hurled racial slurs at him during their confrontation. "January 6 still isn't over for me," he told lawmakers. The former officer, who received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Joe Biden, published a memoir last year shortly before leaving the force.

Dunn, though, doesn't begin the race with strong ties to the suburban Baltimore turf he wants to represent. The candidate grew up in Prince George's County, which is in the Washington, D.C., area, and he currently lives just outside the district in Montgomery County. Sarbanes' Third District, by contrast, which is largely split between Anne Arundel and Howard counties, sits to the north, though it does border Montgomery.

Prior to Dunn's entry, five local Democratic legislators were competing in the May 14 primary for the 3rd, a reliably blue seat that favored Biden 62-36. That group includes state Sens. Sarah Elfreth and Clarence Lam, as well as Dels. Mark Chang, Terri Hill, and Mike Rogers.

The Democratic field also expanded earlier in the week when attorney Don Quinn, who lost a tight 2014 state Senate race as a Republican, launched his campaign. "The most important lesson I learned is that I wasn’t a Republican," Quinn told Maryland Matters of that first run for office, adding that he joined the Democratic Party the following year. Businessman Juan Dominguez, who has spent months waging a longshot bid for the Senate, also recently filed FEC paperwork to switch to a House bid. Maryland's filing deadline is Feb. 9, so more hopefuls could still enter over the next month.

P.S.: CNN notes that Dunn would be the second Capitol Police veteran to join Congress—and the first was also a Democrat named Harry. "The late Harry Reid was a Capitol Police Officer," Dunn said of the late Senate majority leader. "So, I guess I don’t mind being second to him."

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Maryland Republicans Nominate Far-Right Election Denier For Governor

Maryland Republicans Nominate Far-Right Election Denier For Governor

Republicans likely squandered an opportunity to hold on to the Maryland governor's mansion, political analysts said Wednesday, after the GOP nominated a far-right election denier for the state's November gubernatorial election.

With 80 percent of the vote counted, Maryland Del. Dan Cox — a Donald Trump-endorsed state legislator who chartered three busloads of people to attend the rally that preceded the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 — is currently projected to win the Republican nomination for governor by at least a 16-point margin, according to the New York Times.

Cox defeated Kelly Schulz, the state's former commerce secretary, for the chance to try to succeed Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who is term-limited.

Election forecasters and experts believed Schulz — who was Hogan's pick in the race — could have made the race in an otherwise Democrat-heavy state competitive for Republicans in the fall.

However, experts say that Cox — who falsely claims the 2020 election was stolen, called former Vice President Mike Pence a "traitor" for not blocking the certification of President Joe Biden's victory, has ties to the QAnon movement that the FBI deems a domestic terror threat, and opposed coronavirus mitigation efforts — will make the governor's mansion near impossible for Republicans to hold in November.

"Cox was endorsed by Trump and bused people to the January 6 riot," Nathaniel Rakich, a senior elections analyst for the website FiveThirtyEight, tweeted after the Associated Press called the race for Cox. "The GOP might've had a shot with Kelly [Schulz], but now #MDgov should be a slam-dunk Democratic gain."

Jessica Taylor, a political analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report group, also said she believes Cox's win solidifies the general election as a likely Democratic win.

"It didn't have to be this way," Taylor tweeted, adding that the race "could have been competitive" if Schulz had won. Ultimately, Taylor said, "Trump putting retribution over sound political strategy cost" Republicans the race.

Even Republicans are not supportive of their party's candidate. A spokesperson for Hogan — who won election as governor twice, despite the fact that Democrats carry Maryland by wide margins in presidential elections — told reporters on Wednesday that he would not vote for his own party's nominee in November. (Cox unsuccessfully led an attempt to impeach Hogan in February over Hogan's COVID-19 mitigation policies.)

Meanwhile, Doug Mayer, a top aide to Schulz's campaign, described Cox's win as a "ritualized mass suicide" by Maryland Republicans.

"The only thing that was missing was Jim Jones and a cup of Kool-Aid," Mayer told the Times.

This is the latest race where a Trump-backed candidate has won the GOP gubernatorial nomination, despite the fact that the party operatives and officials feared they are the weaker candidate or would not be able to win in a general election against the Democratic nominee.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who also bused Trump supporters to the January 6 insurrection and was even on the restricted Capitol grounds during the violent riots, won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Pennsylvania. And Darren Bailey, another election denier, won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Illinois.

The Cook Political Report now rates the Maryland governor's race a "solid Democratic" contest.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Another GOP Governor Rejects McConnell Plea To Run For US Senate

Another GOP Governor Rejects McConnell Plea To Run For US Senate

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Tuesday that he will not run for Senate this year, marking another setback for Senate Republican leaders who want to take back the majority.

"I sincerely appreciate all the people who have been encouraging me to consider it," Hogan told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "Just because you can win a race doesn't mean that's the job you should do if your heart's not in it. And I just didn't see myself being a U.S. senator."

Hogan also quipped that he called incumbent Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) "to let him know that he can rest easy and get a good night's sleep tonight."

Both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had reportedly been working hard to persuade Hogan to run for Senate this year to help the GOP regain a majority in the chamber.

Hogan, who has served as Maryland's governor since 2015, is term-limited and not allowed to run for reelection.

The Associated Press reported in January that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao had also been enlisted in the effort to persuade Hogan to run.

This is not the first recent high-profile recruiting failure for Senate Republicans in a state carried by President Joe Biden.

In November, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu rejected the party leaders' attempts to get him to challenge Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH).

Sununu pointed directly to McConnell and his caucus' obstruction of nearly all legislation as a reason he did not want to be a GOP senator, observing that "too often, doing nothing is considered a win."

He openly observed that the Republican incumbents recruiting him seemed generally "content with the speed at which they weren't doing anything," adding, "OK, so I'm just going to be a roadblock for two years. That's not what I do."

McConnell and Scott also reportedly tried to convince Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to mount a challenge against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. Ducey, who had previously disclaimed interest in the race, said last Thursday that his answer "hasn't changed."

Van Hollen is considered by political experts to be a heavy favorite to win a second term in a solidly blue state. But Hogan is the very rare Republican who has managed to be elected statewide in Maryland in recent decades, winning reelection in 2018 by nearly 12 points.

A recent internal GOP poll showed Hogan ahead in a hypothetical Senate matchup against Van Hollen, 49-37 percent.

Hogan has presented himself as an independent-minded moderate who rejected Trump. This did not stop him from advocating for GOP control of the U.S. Senate in the 2020 Georgia runoff elections or from using his position as co-chair of the No Labels super PAC to oppose Biden's popular agenda in the name of "bipartisanship."

But as Trump and his supporters have pushed to get revenge against his critics and drive them out of the party, there appears to be little room for even slightly centrist Republicans.

Last week, Hogan rebuked the Republican National Committee for censuring two House Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (WY) and Adam Kinzinger (IL), for their role in investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that was carried out by Trump supporters.

"The GOP I believe in is the party of freedom and truth," Hogan tweeted on February 4. "It's a sad day for my party — and the country — when you're punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies."

Reprinted with permission from American Independent