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SAVE America Act Would Stop Nonexistent Fraud By Crushing Minority Vote

SAVE America Act Would Stop Nonexistent Fraud By Crushing Minority Vote

With a 51-48 Senate vote, Republicans began debate on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, a bill that would require citizens to produce documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The Senate debate enters its second week today.

Senators are warning the bill could suppress the votes of potentially millions of U.S. citizens.

In a joint press release on March 18, Virginia Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner say that requiring all citizens to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote and photo identification to vote in person or by mail could make it impossible for millions of Americans to participate in elections.

“I support reasonable steps that help maintain trust in our elections, including the voter identification requirements we already have in Virginia,” the senators said. “But the SAVE America Act goes far beyond that – it is a pretext for voter suppression. Republicans continue to raise baseless fears about election fraud and noncitizen voting, despite the fact that our elections are regularly audited and have also been tested repeatedly in courts, especially after 2020. Yet, no evidence of widespread voter fraud has ever been found. This bill is yet another extension of President Trump’s fixation on the 2020 election, and part of a broader effort to undermine confidence in our democracy ahead of 2026 and 2028.”

The act would require that the name on the document used as proof of citizenship match the name on the voter’s photo ID; if it didn’t, the voter would be required to provide additional documentation establishing that the name on the proof of citizenship is their previous legal name.

Kaine and Warner noted that 40 percent of Virginians, for example, do not hold a valid passport and about two million Virginia women have birth certificates that do not include their current legal name. To register to vote, those women would need to bring their birth certificates and marriage licenses to election officials in person.

The senators pointed to a 2024 Virginia Public Radio review of court records that found zero cases of noncitizens being convicted of illegally voting over the past two decades. Similar data has been found in many other states, with little national evidence of any noncitizens voting.

The House of Representatives passed the bill on February 11 on a 218-213 vote.

At a March 17 press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was asked for one example of fraud the SAVE America Act would have prevented. He did not provide any, responding, “Look, we’re not going to litigate all that” and falsely saying that the proposal is supported by 90 percent of voters.

President Donald Trump has made passage of the bill a top priority, believing it will help prevent Democrats from winning in the November elections. “It’ll guarantee the midterms. If you don’t get it, big trouble,” he told House Republicans on March 9.

Trump told the lawmakers that he would not sign any other legislation until it is approved. He said the same thing in a March 8 post on his Truth Social site, also insisting that the bill include anti-transgender policies and a ban on mail-in voting for everyone except the military.

“Only sick, demented, or deranged people in the House or Senate could vote against THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump posted. “If they do, each one of these points, separately, will be used against the user in his/her political campaign for office – A guaranteed loss!”

The bill is unlikely to receive the needed 60 votes to end debate in the Senate. “It’s a waste of time,” North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told NBC News on March 13. “I don’t think it’s going to result in an outcome. And if you take a look at the chances of success versus the probability of failure, it’s not even close.”

Reprinted with permission from the Virginia Independent

Virginia Democrats Say Redistricting Vote Could Determine Midterm Success

Virginia Democrats Say Redistricting Vote Could Determine Midterm Success

Virginia’s April 21 statewide referendum on a proposed change to the way the state draws its congressional map could change the makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives. Supporters say that in addition to creating a level national playing field, approval of the referendum could mean the next Congress would be more responsive to the issues they care about.

Early voting on the redistricting amendment is already underway across the commonwealth.

Republicans currently hold a 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives, with three seats vacant. Virginia’s congressional delegation is six Democrats and five Republicans.

After President Donald Trump successfully pressured Republican-led state legislatures in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina to adopt mid-decade gerrymanders, redrawing their existing congressional maps to make more districts favorable to Republican candidates, Virginia’s Democratic-led General Assembly proposed to change the Virginia Constitution to temporarily allow the lawmakers to redraw maps to restore balance nationally to the congressional district map.

Their proposed new map, designed to elect 10 Democrats and one Republican, would automatically go into effect if voters approve the ballot initiative and could determine who controls Congress in 2027. The commonwealth's Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the bill approving the temporary Congressional maps on February 21.

All five Virginia House Republicans oppose the amendment. Rep. Rob Wittman said in a February 5 statement that “political competition elsewhere does not require abandoning the established process at home.”

The Virginia Independent spoke with several voters who plan to vote yes in the referendum or have already done so.

Karen Baker, chair of the Floyd County Democratic Committee and a former ICU nurse and federal administrative law judge, said the 2026 midterm elections will determine the future of the nation’s social programs and health care system. She said her yes vote on redistricting will help push back against Trump’s administration.

A vote for the amendment “might be a vote for [undoing] defunding of community health centers. Might be a vote for a lot of the infrastructure of health care in this country, which isn’t great to begin with, but this Project 2025 and Trump have gutted health care,” Baker said. “People haven’t really felt it yet, as badly as it’s going to be felt after 2026, and if we take back the Congress, we can fix that, we can change that, we can claw back the health care system that is being destroyed.”

Michael Passante of Tysons, the former chief counsel for the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Financial Research, left his job under the deferred resignation program after it was announced that nearly two-thirds of the office’s staff were likely to be cut as part of the Trump administration’s slashing of the federal workforce.

“Voting yes on the referendum helps ensure fairness for federal workers and contractors because Virginia’s members of Congress will better protect federal workers from the attempts to shut down or cut federal agencies,” Passante told the Virginia Independent in an email.

Gillian Sullivan of Fairfax City said she took deferred retirement after having been terminated as a probationary employee and then reinstated. She said she hopes the redistricting amendment leads to a Congress focused on rebuilding the federal workforce.

“I know that some in Congress have been trying to introduce legislation that will have a much higher chance of passing,” Sullivan said, with “a less MAGA Congress.”

“The goal, the hope, would be to start to rebuild the federal government and some of what’s been gutted by DOGE, and to get that started earlier, instead of like 2028 or later, get that started 2027, would help the American people get services and information that they’re no longer getting because of the cuts,” she said.

Celeste Garrett, a marketing manager for a green-building firm and a King William County resident, framed her yes vote as important for protecting reproductive rights.

“Already, federal funding for Planned Parenthood has been stopped,” she noted, referring to a provision in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by Congress in 2025. “So that means that those people who cannot afford private health insurance don’t have access anyways. So it’s really important to me that we also have voices in Congress, because that’s where the power of the purse is. I would love to see Planned Parenthood health centers getting federal funding again, because people who are on Medicaid can no longer get reproductive health care now.”

“I feel like it’s impossible to be in favor of reproductive freedom and to be against this amendment, simply because what Trump is doing already is unfairly tipping the scales in his favor and not representative of what people want,” Garrett added.

Journeyman electrician Sean Garanzini, a Fairfax County resident, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26, and co-chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee Labor Caucus, said in a text that the referendum would empower workers and boost affordability: “The current administration is trying [to] consolidate power away from the working class into the executive and is willing to use governors and state legislatures that are loyal to Trump to do so. We, the working class of Virginia, must take this temporary measure of redistricting to counter the blatant authoritarianism we are witnessing. As Trump takes illegal actions across the world that directly harm workers with unnecessary rising costs, Virginia must stand together with one voice and announce that enough is enough! Sic Semper Tyrannis!”

Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for the pro-redistricting amendment campaign committee Virginians for Fair Elections, told the Virginia Independent, “A YES vote is about making sure Virginians — not Trump or MAGA politicians manipulating the rules — decide who represents them in Congress and the direction our country takes on the issues Commonwealth families care about, from protecting reproductive freedom and access to health care to making life here more affordable.”

Reprinted with permission from The Virginia Independent


Nation's Electric Bill Jumped In 2025 Despite Trump's Promise To Slash Cost

Nation's Electric Bill Jumped In 2025 Despite Trump's Promise To Slash Cost

During his 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly promised that if voters returned him to the White House, his policies would quickly slash everyone’s energy bills in half. A new congressional report, however, finds that the average American family is paying more in electricity costs than before Trump’s second presidential term.

In a report released on March 17, the minority staff of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee says that the average American household’s total annual electric bill rose by $110 between 2024 and 2025, a 6.4 percent increase.

Offering few specifics as to how, Trump told the Economic Club of New York in September 2024: “My plan will cut energy prices in half or more than that within 12 months of taking office. It will be an economic revival of our country like no one has ever seen before. Energy was what caused our problem initially. Energy is going to bring us back. That means we’re going down and getting gasoline below $2.00 a gallon, bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, airfares, and housing costs.”

Under President Joe Biden, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, both of which included significant federal investments in clean energy infrastructure. The Inflation Reduction Act included billions of dollars in tax credits to lower clean energy costs for consumers and help make their homes more energy-efficient.

Since taking office, Trump has worked to undo as many of those provisions as possible, halting solar and wind energy projects, canceling $8 billion in clean energy projects, and repealing much of the unspent Inflation Reduction Act money for clean energy.

At the same time, Trump’s tariffs on imported goods, grid damage spurred by climate change, and increased power demands from data centers have made electricity more expensive.

“American families don’t need a report to tell them that the President has broken his campaign promise to slash energy costs; they already feel the impact of President Trump’s actions every single day. But this report is yet another indication that sky-high costs are continuing to rise – and are continuing to hurt American families,” said the Joint Economic Committee’s ranking member, New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, in a statement.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

In Virginia, for example, families saw their electricity bills increase 9.5 percent, paying $170 more in 2025.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, average national gasoline prices have not dropped below $2.00 in any week since Trump returned to the White House. The lowest price was $2.779 in January.

According to American Automobile Association data, the average cost of a gallon of regular gas in Virginia rose from $2.823 a month ago to $3.634 following Trump’s launch of military strikes on Iran.

Reprinted with permission from The American Independent

Fellow Republican Demands Rep. Bresnahan Quit Over Illicit Stock Trades

Fellow Republican Demands Rep. Bresnahan Quit Over Illicit Stock Trades

Former Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Jim Greenwood is calling on his fellow Pennsylvanian Rep. Rob Bresnahan to resign from Congress over corruption allegations.

On March 10, Politico published a story titled “Unearthed audio appears to contradict Rep. Bresnahan’s stock trading claims,” which says that the first-term lawmaker said in an April 2025 radio interview: “I meet with my financial adviser. We talk about, you know, what different positions are coming up.”

But during a June 2025 tele-town hall, Bresnahan said: “I think you need to know that the trades are being executed on my behalf. I do not have any dialogues with my financial advisers.”

A Bresnahan campaign spokesperson denied any contradiction or wrongdoing in an emailed statement, saying, “Rob Bresnahan has consistently said that he does not have any involvement in stock trades.”

Greenwood, who represented an eastern Pennsylvania congressional district from 1993 to 2005, said in a March 10 Facebook post: “Congressman Bresnahan’s own admission that he discusses his stock positions with his financial advisor is a red line that should never be crossed by a public official and a clear abuse of power, It has become clear that Congressman Bresnahan is using his office to benefit himself rather than the Pennsylvanians he was elected to represent, and he must resign immediately. I proudly represented Pennsylvania as a Republican in Congress for more than a decade, but taking on corruption and restoring trust and integrity to the people’s House is not a partisan issue. Republicans, Independents, and Democrats should come together and say with a united voice that it is unacceptable for our elected officials like Congressman Bresnahan to profit off their votes in Congress.”

Bresnahan, a multimillionaire construction industry executive and investor, won his seat in the 2024 election after penning a letter to the Republican Herald newspaper in Pottsville calling for a ban on stock trading by members of Congress.

“The trust our political leaders and institutions have from Americans is at a historic low and it’s easy to understand why. Too often we hear about how politicians are making millions of dollars during their time in office and it is sickening,” he wrote. “Some of the most prolific traders in the country serve in Congress. Whether or not they have done something wrong, the idea that we can buy and sell stocks while voting on legislation that will have a direct impact on these companies is wrong and needs to come to an end immediately.”

Since taking office, Bresnahan has introduced a congressional stock trading ban proposal; however, he has personally reported hundreds of stock trades totalling more than $8 million dollars in value, according to the tracking site Capitol Trades. An April 2025 New York Times story identified him as among the most frequent traders in his congressional class.

In July 2025, Bresnahan told WVIA News that House ethics rules had kept him from immediately putting his holdings into a blind trust after taking office, that he has no involvement in stock trades made by his financial advisers, and that he would not instruct those advisers to stop buying and selling stocks: “And then do what with it? Just leave it all in the accounts and just leave it there and lose money and go broke?”

Many of Bresnahan’s disclosed stock transactions have involved industries regulated by Congress. In May 2025, Bresnahan sold stock in Medicaid provider businesses before voting to slash funding for the program, according to NBC News.

Bresnahan campaign spokesperson Chris Pack told the Pennylsvania Independent that the latest allegations were nothing more than the misrepresentation of comments taken out of context and said, “We’ve decided to take the high road and not engage in elder abuse by commenting on a washed-up political has-been like James Greenwood, who quit office to become a DC lobbyist and has since spent the twilight of his career as an anti-Trump, pro-Kamala mouthpiece wandering aimlessly in search of relevance.”

Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is challenging Bresnahan in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District in the November election.

Reprinted with permission from the Pennsylvania Independent

Virginia's First Female Governor Inaugurates Her 'Affordability Agenda'

Virginia's First Female Governor Inaugurates Her 'Affordability Agenda'

Abigail Spanberger, inaugurated on January 17 as the 75th governor of Virginia, began to implement her agenda centered around her campaign pledges to make the state more affordable, improve education, and address gun violence almost immediately after taking office.

Minutes after taking her oath of office, Spanberger signed 10 executive orders. The first order, called the Statewide Affordability Directive, ordered all Cabinet secretaries and executive branch heads to report to her within the next 90 days “identifying immediate, actionable budgetary, regulatory, or policy changes that would reduce costs for Virginians” addressing cost savings in housing, health care, energy, education, child care, and living expenses.

Other orders created an Interagency Health Financing Task Force to strengthen Virginia’s health care system, ordered a multi-agency Housing Development Regulation Review to increase the supply of housing, directed the Department of Education to strengthen literacy, math, school accountability, and assessment in the commonwealth’s public education systems.

“Today, we are responding to the moment. We are setting the tone for what Virginians can expect over the next four years: pragmatic leadership focused on lowering costs and delivering results,” Spanberger said in a press release. “My administration is getting to work on Day One to address the top-of-mind challenges facing families by lowering costs for Virginians in every community, building a stronger economy for every worker, and making sure that every student in the Commonwealth receives a high-quality education that sets them up for success. These executive orders represent the first steps in our work to create a stronger, safer, and — critically — more affordable future for our Commonwealth.”

On the campaign trail, she promised to address rising housing, health care, and energy costs and touted an eight-page plan detailing how she would do so.

Spanberger laid out her policy agenda in an address to the General Assembly on January 19, which is centered around the Affordable Virginia Agenda she and Democratic leaders in the House of Delegates and Senate are proposing in order to lower those costs.

Among her proposals was legislation to limit the profits of pharmacy benefit managers, provide targeted assistance to Virginians at risk of losing health insurance coverage due to the expiration of federal subsidies, boost energy storage, help Virginians make their homes more energy efficient, help renters avoid eviction, and build more affordable housing.

“These are not hyperpartisan proposals; they are commonsense solutions,” Spanberger told lawmakers. “And I believe they deserve support from every member of this body, Democrats and Republicans.”

Spanberger urged legislators to create a statewide paid family and medical leave program, increase subsidized child care, raise the hourly minimum wage to $15, and increase pay for teachers. She promised to sign bills, vetoed last year by then-Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, aimed at curbing gun violence, such as a ban on ghost guns, a law blocking convicted domestic abusers from accessing firearms, and an expansion of Virginia’s red-flag law temporarily disarming those judged to be an imminent danger to themselves or others.

Finally, Spanberger expressed her support for three constitutional amendments to be voted on by Virginians in November that would guarantee reproductive rights, automatically restore the right to vote for individuals convicted of a felony after they have completed their sentences, and codify the rights of two adults to marry.

She defended a fourth proposed constitutional amendment to temporarily change the way Virginia draws its congressional maps, likely to be considered by voters in April, saying: “Virginia’s proposed redistricting amendment is a response to what we’re seeing in other states that have taken extreme measures to undermine democratic norms. This approach is short-term, highly targeted, and completely dependent on what other states decide to do themselves.”

Giving the Republican response, Republican state Sen. Glenn Sturtevant criticized Democrats for advancing the redistricting amendment, saying it would not lower costs, according to a Cardinal News transcript. “We also need to be honest about what Democrats are proposing, because it will make life more expensive,” Sturtevant said, “Their tax-and-spend agenda would cost Virginia families billions each year, adding thousands of dollars in new burdens for the typical household.”

Reprinted with permission from the Virginia Independent

Jon Tester

Montana's Tester Departs Senate With Striking Record Of Achievement

After three six-year terms representing Montana in the U.S. Senate, Democratic incumbent Jon Tester lost his bid for reelection on November 5 by a margin of 53-45 percent.

In his concession speech, Tester congratulated Republican Tim Sheehy on his victory and observed: “I’m very blessed. I’ve had a great 18 years in the United States Senate. I’ve met some incredible people along the way and had the opportunity to do some great things to help move this state forward and move the country forward. I wish Sen.-elect Sheehy all the best, because, quite frankly, it’s really important that we have good leadership in Washington, D.C.”

Tester, whose term ended on January 3, will leave office with a lengthy list of policy accomplishments.

Tester backed a bipartisan 2007 law that raised the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25.

In December 2009, he provided the 60th vote necessary to pass the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The law has helped more than 40 million Americans access health insurance, including 117,000 Montanans who gained coverage through the state’s expansion of Medicaid and 66,000 more individuals in the state who purchased private plans through the law’s insurance exchange. Its provisions prohibiting discrimination by insurers against those with preexisting medical conditions protected 152,000 Montanans, according to a 2018 KFF estimate.

He was one of 60 senators who voted in 2010 to pass a package of Wall Street reforms and consumer protections commonly known as Dodd-Frank.

Tester helped to negotiate and pass the bipartisan 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which authorized billions of dollars in federal funding for Montana’s roads, bridges, water systems, transit, airports, broadband, and electric vehicle charging stations. That money has already gone to projects that include upgrading Mill Creek Highway, repairing roads in Yellowstone National Park, replacing the St. Mary Diversion Dam, protecting the state’s energy grid against wildfires, and improving five Montana airports.

Tester authored numerous laws, many of which were aimed at helping veterans. He became chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in 2021 and pushed through laws ensuring veterans’ access to mammograms, cutting red tape for those vets who enroll in education programs, and increasing the oversight authority of the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general. Tester partnered with Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran to pass a bipartisan law ensuring that veterans exposed to toxins during their time serving can access health care and disability benefits.

Most recently, he cast a deciding vote for the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. That law’s health care provisions capped the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for the more than 250,000 Montanans enrolled in Medicare and authorized the federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices. Its environmental investments have already funded public land restoration in Blackfoot–Clark Fork Valley, the Missouri Headwaters–Big Hole Valley, and on land north of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

The nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked Tester as one of the most effective senators in the 117th Congress and cited him as the senator with the “longest streak of ‘exceeding expectations’” for efficacy over the years.

This story was originally published by the Montana Independent.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News.

Mike Johnson

Narrower GOP Majority Will Be Hell For Weakened Speaker Johnson

Democrats gained seats in the House of Representatives, narrowing an already small Republican majority for 2025. With a larger majority in the current Congress, Republican infighting left the chamber unable to pass legislation for much of the past two years.

California Republican Rep. John Duarte conceded on December 3 after the final count in the 13th District found Democratic challenger Adam Gray won by 187 votes, ending the final uncalled House race of the November 2024 election. With Gray’s win, Republicans have just a 220-215 majority for 2025, two seats closer than their 222-213 margin after the 2022 midterms and just three seats away from losing control.

With President-elect Donald Trump taking office on January 20 and a 53-47 Republican majority in the U.S. Senate starting in January, GOP leaders hope to pass an array of conservative policy changes in 2025.

But a series of resignations could temporarily leave the GOP with no margin for error until special elections are held in the new year.

Trump’s aborted pick for attorney general, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, resigned his House seat on November 13 amid an ethics committee investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct. He has said he will not return to Congress in 2025.

Florida Rep. Michael Waltz is set to resign January 20 to become Trump’s national security adviser and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik is leaving to be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

With just a 217-215 majority, even a single defection would leave the GOP unable to pass legislation.

Since the 2022 elections, the Republican majority in the House has repeatedly made headlines for being disarray.

In January 2023, Republicans were unable to muster the required majority to elect California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker for days, requiring 15 ballots.

The caucus’ planned “first two weeks” agenda stalled, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) was only able to bring up about half of the 11 bills he promised would be “ready-to-go” in that time.

McCarthy’s tenure ended in October 2023, when right-wing members of the GOP successfully moved to remove him from the speakership. The party again deadlocked on a replacement, this time for three weeks. The party eventually settled on Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson.

Johnson’s tenure has thus far been no smoother. After passing almost no legislation in 2023, House Republicans repeatedly had to cancel announced votes because they could not garner a majority to agree on rules for debate or on the bills.

Despite Johnson’s promise to delay any recess until all 12 annual appropriations bills have passed, several have not passed the House as of early December.

Reprinted with permission from Michigan Independent.

Dave McCormick

'I'm Prospecting With Really Wealthy People' Boasts Senate Candidate McCormick

Wealthy Connecticut former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick, who has been endorsed by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey this November, has backed a series of policies that would help very rich individuals and hurt working families. On January 22, he indicated that he is spending half of his time fundraising with out-of-state rich people.

In a discussion at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, titled “View from the Top with Dave McCormick, U.S. Senate Candidate,” the millionaire former CEO of Bridgewater Associates and unsuccessful 2022 Senate primary candidate told students: “I’m spending half my time with donors. Essentially, it’s going to be the most expensive race in the country.”

In an audio recording of the event, posted by Heartland Signal, he said: “I’m nationalizing the race. if you vote for me you’re voting for winning the Senate, blah blah blah. So I’m everywhere, prospecting mostly with really wealthy people, where you will all be in 20 years, or many of you. And I’m also spending half my time in Pennsylvania, where the median income is $55,000 to $60,000.”

His campaign has said it raised $6.4 million in the last quarter of 2023, including $1 million of McCormick’s own money.

The only policy issues mentioned in the agenda section of McCormick’s campaign site are his plans to counter the influence of China, where his old investment firm invested more than $1 billion during his tenure.

In remarks at last year’s annual Pennsylvania Society reception, an event attended by Pennsylvania politicians and business leaders in New York City, heard in a recording obtained by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star in December, McCormick argued that wealthy business executives are not greedy price-gougers and that their taxes should be cut permanently. “We need to make this a more business-friendly commonwealth and more business-friendly country,” he said, according to the Capital-Star. “We need to make permanent the Tax [Cuts] and Jobs Act. We need to get rid of this onerous red tape and regulation which has gotten a lot worse under the Biden administration.”

The 2017 tax law in question, signed by President Donald Trump, slashed tax rates for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations while actually raising them for 10 million American families. For top earners like McCormick, whose 2022 salary exceeded $22 million, the law dropped his tax rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent, likely saving him hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The individual cuts are set to expire in 2025; making them permanent would add an estimated $3.5 trillion to the national debt through 2033, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

In October 2023, McCormick said he opposed President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which boosted climate investments and reduced health care costs. Though the law has lowered prescription drug prices and the cost of insulin for Pennsylvanians on Medicare, McCormick implied he would like to scrap most or all of it along with Biden’s bipartisan 2021 infrastructure investments: “We’ve got to roll that back. … So the big Biden legislation was a terrible mistake. The Green New Bill, all these things were disasters. And so we’ve got to roll that back.”

Biden has not signed a “Green New Bill,” but the infrastructure law has already provided funds to help Pennsylvania families afford air conditioning and heating bills, repair the commonwealth’s unsafe bridges, and improve water infrastructure in Pennsylvania.

McCormick said in March 2023 that the public education system is not doing enough to teach kids that America is exceptional, “And that’s why we’ve got to break the back of our teachers’ unions and our public school system and give kids choice and get parents more involved.”

He has come under fire for actually living in Connecticut, rather than in Pennsylvania, according to tax records. Although he calls himself “a Pennsylvania job creator and a business leader,” a January 9 HuffPost report found that his firm cut hundreds of jobs after accepting Connecticut state funds to boost hiring.

Though he claimed in a January 2022 radio interview never to have outsourced jobs, he boasted in a 2005 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review interview that his experience helping companies move jobs offshore would help him in the role to which he had just been appointed, as undersecretary of commerce for export administration in the George W. Bush administration.

Reprinted with permission from Pennsylvania Independent.

Biden's IRS Revamp Brings In $500M -- So Far -- From Millionaire Deadbeats

Biden's IRS Revamp Brings In $500M -- So Far -- From Millionaire Deadbeats

Despite false claims by congressional Republicans that Democrats would create a massive army of armed Internal Revenue Service agents to harass working families, the Biden administration’s modernization of the agency and crackdown on rich tax cheaters is paying dividends already. So far, the agency has collected about half a billion dollars in revenue owed by the wealthiest Americans.

According to an IRS statement released on January 12, funds from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 have enabled the agency to recover “$482 million in ongoing efforts to recoup taxes owed by 1,600 millionaires.” At least $360 million of that has come in since late October. The agency is also prioritizing enforcement efforts against large corporations that have underpaid what they owe.

Without a single Republican vote, Democrats in Congress and President Joe Biden enacted the 2022 law, which included an $80 billion investment in the IRS over a decade to tighten tax enforcement for wealthy individuals and businesses and to allow the agency to update its information technology systems.

Republicans in Congress, including members of the Michigan delegation, opposed the effort and repeatedly lied about it, saying that it would fund 87,000 new IRS agents to target the middle class.

“Dems are hiring 87,000 new IRS agents to come after you. That’s more people than can fit in Spartan Stadium,“ tweeted Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) in August 2022. “That’s a NO from me!”

“Inflation is at a 40-year high and the economy is in the grips of a recession. Democrats’ response is a massive spending bill that will raise taxes and hire 87,000 IRS agents to target hardworking families,” wrote Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI). ”It’s reckless, wrong, and out of touch.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed that the new funds not be used to increase the share of audits of families earning below $400,000 annually or of small businesses. “In fact, we expect audit rates for honest taxpayers to decline,” she predicted in a September 2022 speech, “once the IRS has the right technological infrastructure in place.”

After gaining a narrow majority in the House the midterm elections, Republicans attempted to repeal the new IRS funding entirely. In one of their first votes in January 2023, they passed the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act on a party-line vote.

Republican Reps. Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John James, McClain, John Moolenaar, and Walberg all voted in favor.

According to a January 2023 CNN fact check, the false claim about 87,000 agents stemmed from a 2021 Treasury Department report that noted that the funds could enable 86,952 full-time employees to be hired over a decade. Not all of those would be agents, and many would replace 52,000 current employees expected to retire by 2028.

The bill has not come up for a vote in the Democratic-led Senate, though both parties have agreed on more modest IRS funding cuts of $20 billion as part of debt ceiling and budget compromises.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s estimates, the original Inflation Reduction Act investment of $80 billion was expected to bring in about $180 billion in additional revenue owed to the government, bringing down the deficit by more than $100 billion over a decade.

A January 2022 poll by Data for Progress found that 68 percent of likely voters supported the IRS doing more “to make sure that wealthy Americans are paying their fair share in taxes.”

A January 2024 Navigator poll found 67 percent of registered voters support the Inflation Reduction Act in general, while 22 percent oppose it.

Reprinted with permission from The Michigan Independent

Tim Sheehy

GOP Senate Candidate Attacked Lobbyist Funding -- Then Took Their Money

Tim Sheehy, a Republican millionaire business executive running to be one of Montana’s U.S. senators in 2024, has repeatedly complained that Democratic Sen. Jon Tester takes too much in campaign donations from registered lobbyists. But Sheehy’s first campaign finance disclosure filing reveals that his campaign has already received tens of thousands of dollars from lobbyists. Sheehy is one of three candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the seat.

“On his way to becoming the number one recipient of lobbyist cash, Jon Tester has talked a lot about standing up to the pay-to-play culture in Washington but hasn’t done a thing to stop it,” Sheehy said in a September 25 press release. “Career politicians like Jon Tester have abandoned the American people — serving the lobbyists, special interests, and themselves instead of hard working Americans. Jon Tester is all talk, no leadership — Montanans deserve better.”

Sheehy’s claim, which he has also repeatedly tweeted, appears to be based on data from five years ago, when, at one point in the 2018 campaign cycle, Tester was the national leader in lobbyist contributions. He did not rank in the top 25, according to Open Secrets, during the 2020 or 2022 campaign cycles.

As national Republican leaders pushed to recruit Sheehy to run, he met in June with a group of about 20 federal lobbyists at the Washington, D.C., offices of tobacco giant Altria to discuss the race, according to a Politico Playbook report.

Three days after Sheehy joined the race, he accepted a $3,300 donation — the largest legally permissible amount — from registered lobbyist Todd Walker, Altria‘s senior vice president for government affairs and public policy.

A Sheehy campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to an American Independent Foundation inquiry about his contributors.

Walker is not the only lobbyist funding Sheehy’s campaign. An American Independent Foundation review of his October quarterly disclosure to the Federal Election Commision reveals that he accepted at least $41,660 from registered lobbyists and another $1,000 from the corporate PAC for the CGCN Group, a top Washington lobbying firm.

Among his lobbyist donors are Brian Henneberry, who represents fossil fuel behemoth Koch Industries; Chevron lobbyist James R. Thompson; and Phil Hardy, whose clients include Sheehy’s own company, Bridger Aerospace Group.

As Sheehy collects donations from lobbyists and decries their influence, Insider reported in August that he plans to give some of the proceeds of his soon-to-be-published memoir to the United Aerial Firefighters Association, an industry group he co-founded. The group has spent at least $25,000 on federal lobbying already in 2023.

Though the National Republican Senatorial Committee is backing Sheehy, polling shows he is trailing Republican Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, who is reportedly planning to join the race, in a possible primary matchup. Sheehy also trails Tester in a hypothetical general election.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News.

Glenn Youngkin

TikTok Billionaire Funding Glenn Youngkin's Anti-Choice Crusade

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is collecting millions of dollars from rich out-of-state donors as he works to win full GOP control of the General Assembly this November. Two million dollars came from a major investor in the parent company of TikTok, a social media app Youngkin banned as a threat to U.S. national security.

Youngkin’s Republican allies currently hold a narrow majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, and they have used their majority to advance Youngkin’s right-wing agenda. Democrats hold a slim majority in the Virginia Senate, which allows them to block Youngkin’s extreme proposals. They’ve stopped rollbacks of reproductive rights, loosening of gun safety laws, and tax cuts for the wealthiest Virginians.

Voting has already begun for all 100 seats in the House and all 40 seats in the Senate. The election ends on November 7.

Youngkin and his Spirit of Virginia PAC are spending heavily to try to win Republican control of both chambers. If Republicans win control of the Legislature, Youngkin has indicated he will attempt to pass an unpopular 12-week abortion ban.

To make a Republican takeover a reality, Youngkin has been relying on billionaire Republican megadonors who do not live in Virginia. CBS News reported on Tuesday that in just 48 hours, he had raised $4.4 million in PAC funds.

A million dollars of that came from Thomas Peterffy, a business executive from Palm Beach, Florida, bringing his total donations to Spirit of Virginia to $3 million for the year.

Another $2,000,000 came from Jeff Yass, the richest person in Pennsylvania, according to a 2022 report published by the website PennLive.

A Spirit of Virginia spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Yass is co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, which has owned about a 15 percent stake in TikTok parent company ByteDance since 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal. The outlet estimated that Yass personally owns about half of that stake, accounting for about $21 billion of his $28 billion net worth.

Because ByteDance is mostly Chinese-owned, Youngkin announced in December 2022 that he would ban the use of TikTok on all state devices and networks.

“TikTok and WeChat data are a channel to the Chinese Communist Party, and their continued presence represents a threat to national security, the intelligence community, and the personal privacy of every single American,” Youngkin said. “We are taking this step today to secure state government devices and wireless networks from the threat of infiltration and ensure that we safeguard the data and cybersecurity of state government.”

Democratic legislative leaders accused Youngkin of hypocrisy in a press release issued Wednesday.

“This is the same party that, not even a week ago, tried to hold the government hostage for their own ambitions. So, am I supposed to be surprised at this blatant hypocrisy?” said House Democratic Leader Don Scott. “The Governor, and his party, seem to have one set of standards when it comes to the livelihood of Virginians and another when it comes to himself. He drove away hundreds of thousands of dollars from Ford to create jobs in the Danville area because of MAGA conspiracy theories, but will accept millions of dollars to his own campaign.”

Youngkin refused in December 2022 to support building a Ford Motor Co. electric battery facility in Virginia, claiming China would control the technology.

“The future of the commonwealth, reproductive healthcare in the south, and fundamental freedoms of all Virginians depend on it,” said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee communications director Abhi Rahman in a press release. “We are all hands on deck to show Youngkin and his billionaires that they cannot buy an abortion ban in Virginia.”

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Chip Roy

House Republicans Forcing A Ruinous Government Shutdown

House Republicans are determined to pass funding bills that have no chance of becoming law as the U.S. Senate seeks a bipartisan agreement to avert a government shutdown.

Congress has not passed annual spending bills, meaning the federal government will partially shut down at the end of September unless the House, Senate, and president can agree on legislation.

On Tuesday, House Republicans voted to begin debate on four partisan bills to slash spending below agreed levels, though those bills stand no chance in the Democratic-led Senate.

On the same day, the Senate advanced a bipartisan plan to fund the federal government’s operations for six weeks, extend disaster relief funding, and support Ukraine’s defense in its war against Russia.

The Senate voted 77-19 to begin consideration of the temporary funding package, which is backed by both Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reportedly told his caucus that the bill will not get a vote on the House floor. McCarthy faces threats from far-right Congress members that he will lose his speakership if he agrees to a bipartisan plan.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told the Wall Street Journal that because the bipartisan bill does not include new border security funding, it would not come up in the House.

Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds called the bill a “non-starter,” with an Axios reporter tweeting on Wednesday that he said, “That thing is dead over here.”

“We’re going to work hard to do the work for the American people, while the Senate can preen and posture with yet another swamp game by putting forward another continuing resolution of the status quo, rather than trying to change this place,” said Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy in a floor speech Tuesday.

Rather than consider the Senate package or any temporary funding legislation, nearly every House Republican voted on Tuesday to consider a series of four appropriations bills that include steep spending cuts to education, health care, child care, and nutrition programs. Even if all four proposals pass the House this week, they stand no chance of passing in the Senate and would not avert a partial shutdown.

Debate on the bills will eat up several hours of House floor time with just four days left before a shutdown.

Some members of the Republican Main Street Caucus, which claims to back “common sense, pragmatic legislation,” have been critical of their House Republican colleagues for bringing the nation to the brink of a shutdown and have suggested that they might join with Democrats on a bipartisan deal.

“When you’re trying to pass something through the House, you want to work as a conference,” New York Rep. Mike Lawler told CNN on Tuesday, “And some of my colleagues have frankly been stuck on stupid and refuse to do what we were elected to do against the vast majority of the conference, who have been working to avoid a shutdown.”

On September 22, Lawler slammed Republican colleagues such as Matt Gaetz of Florida, tweeting: “Create a crisis. Blame others. Pretend to solve.”

But Lawler and the rest of the Main Street Caucus still voted with their party to advance the four-bill package.

“The choice facing Congress: pretty straightforward. We can take the standard approach and fund the government for six weeks at the current rate of operations, or we can shut the government down in exchange for zero meaningful progress on policy,” McConnell said in a Wednesday floor speech.

If the government shuts down, it will continue to provide only essential functions, and no federal employees will receive pay.

In that scenario, families will lose food aid through the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, food safety inspection will be halted, no one will be able to file new Social Security claims, and veterans will be unable to access services.

Recent shutdowns have done billions of dollars in damage to the nation’s economy, reducing its gross domestic product. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the longer a shutdown lasts, the more economic damage it will do.

Still, some House Republicans and former President Donald Trump see a shutdown as a good thing.

“We should not fear a government shutdown. Most of what we do up here is bad anyway. Most of what we do up here hurts the American people,” Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) said in July.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Dave McCormick

Connecticut Republican Declares Candidacy For Pennsylvania Senate Seat

Connecticut-based millionaire and former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick on Thursday announced that he will challenge incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), following months of recruitment efforts by national Republicans. McCormick, who has run for the Senate before, has a long record of opposing public education, reproductive rights, and American workers.

Hours before a scheduled Pittsburgh announcement speech, McCormick released a campaign video, promising: “I will fight for pro-growth economic policies, for America-first energy policies. I will fight on day one to secure borders. I will lead the fight on China.”

In 2022, McCormick sought the Republican nomination for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. He narrowly lost in a primary to television personality Mehmet Oz after Democrats criticized both candidates as carpetbaggers from out of state.

McCormick told the right-wing American Enterprise Institute this March, in an interview first flagged by the progressive super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, that part of the reason Oz lost to Democratic nominee John Fetterman in the November 2022 general election was a lack of authentic connection to the state.

Telling the interviewer that he himself has deep roots in Pennsylvania, McCormick said: “He didn’t have enough anything like that. And so that explains a lot, I think, because people want to know that the person that they’re voting for kind of gets it, and part of getting it is understanding that you just didn’t come in yesterday.” (Disclosure: The American Independent Foundation is a partner organization of American Bridge.)

Though McCormick repeatedly claimed to be a Pennsylvania resident during his 2022 campaign and earlier this year, an August 14 Associated Press investigation of tax filings and property records revealed that he still appears to live in a $16 million mansion in Westport, Connecticut.

The American Independent Foundation later reviewed additional tax records that show he paid Westport town motor vehicle taxes on two vehicles, indicating that they were still registered in Connecticut as of October 2022.

In his 2022 campaign, McCormick spoke about his opposition to abortion. He endorsed a nearly total abortion ban during an April 2022 debate: “I believe in the very rare instances, there should be exceptions for the life of the mother.”

A spokesperson told the Philadelphia Inquirer last June that McCormick now supports exceptions in cases of rape and incest.

Recent polls have shown more than 60 percent of Pennsylvanians support abortion being legal in most or all circumstances. Casey has backed legislation to restore the right to an abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.

During his 2022 campaign, McCormick opposed gun safety legislation and, on his campaign website, accused the “extreme left” of wanting to abolish the Second Amendment.

McCormick attacked public education during a March radio interview, also flagged by American Bridge. Asked on the Rich Zeoli Show about “wokeness” in the education system, McCormick complained that schools were not teaching that America is exceptional:

And this all became clear during COVID, because all of a sudden, parents could see that the history that was being taught, the sexualization that was happening, particularly in our elementary schools, they could see that teachers were making decisions that were not in the best interests of their children. And that’s why we’ve got to break the back of our teachers’ unions and our public school system and give kids choice and get parents more involved.

McCormick said in April 2022 that he opposes efforts to increase the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage, which has not been adjusted since 2009. “I wouldn’t change the minimum wage we have now,” he said on the Politics PA podcast. “But I wouldn’t raise it.”

Asked that January about allegations that his businesses had outsourced Pennsylvania jobs, he told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA: “Certainly, there was never any outsourcing of jobs to any country, and there was certainly no outsourcing of jobs to China. And the businesses I ran had very, very little business at all with China. The firm I led had two percent of its revenue coming from China.”

This appeared to contradict a 2005 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story about McCormick’s assumption of the position of undersecretary of commerce for export in the George W. Bush administration, which said, “McCormick said his experience as a corporate CEO helping companies to move work offshore, and as a platoon leader in the Army during the first Gulf War, will serve him well in his new post.”

The American Independent Foundation reported in March 2022 that McCormick had repeatedly called himself a former Army Ranger, though he never earned that title.

According to the Army’s Special Operations Command, only military members who serve or served in the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment can call themselves a U.S. Army Ranger. McCormick completed the Army’s Ranger Course training program in 1988, entitling him to say he was “Ranger qualified,” according to U.S. military standards, but he never served in the 75th.

In his 2022 campaign, he touted the endorsement of Sean Parnell, a former primary opponent who had dropped out of the race. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had reported that Parnell sought to seal custody records after his estranged wife filed protection-from-abuse orders against him.

“The real David McCormick is a mega-millionaire Connecticut hedge fund executive who is lying about living in Pennsylvania, and has spent his life looking out for himself and his rich friends at the expense of working families,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson Maddy McDaniel told the American Independent Foundation. “Bob Casey has spent his career fighting for Pennsylvanians who work for a living, while McCormick has shown he will do and say anything to benefit himself and his wealthy Wall Street friends.”

Casey has introduced 54 bills so far in 2023, addressing gun violence, Medicare and Medicaid expansion, public health, and costs for Pennsylvania families.

The Cook Political Report lists the race as competitive, but leaning Democratic.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz And Rick Scott Back House Extremists On Government Shutdown

Much of the federal government could shut down on October 1, with far-right members of the House Republican majority unable to come to an agreement on federal funding for the upcoming fiscal year. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rick Scott (R-FL) have been cheering those extremists on.

The House has approved just one of the 12 must-pass appropriations bills needed to keep the government operational each year. Although President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reached an agreement in May, members of the archconservative House Freedom Caucus have refused to allow votes on legislation to fund the government at those levels or on a short-term extension of last year’s spending levels.

After narrowly winning their 2018 reelection races, Cruz and Scott are the most vulnerable Republican Senate incumbents on the ballot in 2024, according to the Cook Political Report. Both sided with the far-right House GOP faction against a bipartisan spending deal.

“Thank God for the @freedomcaucus and all they are doing to ensure Washington does its job and reins in Democrats’ reckless spending,” Scott tweeted on Sept. 12. “Since 2019, the population is up 1.8%, but budgets have grown by 55%. It makes no sense, drives inflation & must be stopped.”

During an appearance at a Freedom Caucus press conference on the same day, he said: “I thank God for what the Freedom Caucus is doing in the House. If they don’t stand up, nobody’s standing up. They stood up on the debt ceiling, and they fought for a great bill. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up that way, but they fought for a great bill. We’ve got to stop this insanity.”

Cruz praised Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, the Freedom Caucus policy chair and Cruz’s own former chief of staff, for fighting against a compromise.

He told Spectrum News on Monday:

“What Chip is arguing for is that Republicans, who were just given a majority in the House, ought to stand up and fight for the priorities that the people elected them to fight for. I think that’s exactly right.”

“Washington often presents a false choice that either … you have to completely concede to the massive spending, the unprecedented debt that is fueling inflation that is hurting Texans across the state, you either have to completely roll over to the Democrats, or the alternative is a shutdown,” Cruz said, according to Spectrum News. “I don’t think we should have a shutdown.”

While a shutdown would not stop the federal government from carrying out some essential functions, it would have to cease most operations, and federal workers would not get paid.

This would mean older Americans would be unable to file new Social Security claims, that lower-income citizens would be unable to access food aid through the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, veterans would not be able to get services, and food safety inspections would grind to a halt. Recent shutdowns have reduced the nation’s gross domestic product by billions of dollars.

While the House Republicans have been unable to agree on a path forward, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have joined together to offer bipartisan appropriations bills.

On September 14, the Senate voted 91-7 to begin debate on a three bill “minibus” package to fund the Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Food and Drug Administration and military construction, for the next fiscal year. Cruz and Scott both voted against the proposal.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Matt Hall

Michigan GOP Politician Sent Death Threats As A Student

The Michigan legislature is currently considering bills designed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. Records provided to the American Independent Foundation show that one of the leading opponents of gun safety legislation in the Michigan House has a history of threatening others with gun violence.

House Minority Leader Matt Hall, a Republican who represents a southwest Michigan district around Kalamazoo, is a graduate of Western Michigan University. During his time there, according to police records obtained through a public records request, he admitted to sending death threats to a student at a college in Maryland, where his girlfriend was studying.

In a signed statement, Hall wrote:

“On December 3, 2001 I sent two separate e-mails to [redacted] at Washington College. The e-mails were threatening to kill him. I thought he had sent me threatening instant messages, but discovered he didn’t.”

In one email, Hall wrote:

YOU BETTER NOT GO TO THE CHRISTMAS PARTY TOMORROW NIGHT! JUST A WORD OF ADVICE!! THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN AND WE DON’T LIKE YOUR KIND TREATING LADIES LIKE [redacted] WITHOUT DIGNITY. SHE IS A FINE LADY YOU DON’T NEED TO BE SAYING SHIT ABOUT HER! WE ARE GOING TO IMPOSE OUR SOUTHERN WAYS ON YOU! I’VE GOT A SHOTGUN RIFLE AND I JUST PUT A BULLET IN IT WITH YOUR NAME ON IT!

In another, he told the student: “YOU HAD BETTER WATCH OUT!! WE DON’T LIKE YOUR KIND HERE IN WC! YOU WON’T FEEL VERY CROMBIE WHEN WE ARE DONE WITH YOU! BY YOU BLOCKING US ON IM WE ARE JUST MORE ANGRY!!! CLOSING TIME IS COMING SOON! BETTER SAY YOUR PRAYERS!!! STAY AWAY FROM [redacted]”

In his statement to the police, Hall wrote: “I don’t have a shotgun or have a bullet with his name on it. I wasn’t going to harm him. I had no intention to hurt him. I realize it was unacceptable and inappropriate. I am sorry for causing him stress. I will not threaten anyone else.”

The file indicates that the case was sent to the Western Michigan University Office of Student Judicial Affairs to be handled within the university. It does not indicate how or whether Hall was punished, but his campaign bio notes that he graduated from Western Michigan University and its affiliated law school.

Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the American Independent Foundation.

In the aftermath of a mass shooting in February at Michigan State University that left three students dead and more injured, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic-led Michigan Legislature enacted a series of bills to combat gun violence.

These included stronger background checks, safe storage requirements, and extreme risk protection orders, commonly known as red flag laws, to temporarily disarm those judged to be a danger to themselves or others.

Bills that would prevent anyone convicted of domestic abuse from owning or possessing firearms and ammunition for eight years after completing their sentences are working their way through the Legislature.

“This is about preventing domestic violence survivors from experiencing further domestic violence and making sure people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence can’t have a gun for a period of years,” Democratic Sen. Stephanie Chang, who sponsored the proposals, told the Michigan Advance in July.

The Republican minority has opposed these gun safety efforts. In an Aug. 9 press release, since deleted from the Michigan House Republicans’ website, Hall framed himself as “a Leading Defender of our Second Amendment Rights”:

It’s no secret that many left-wing activists are pushing radical infringements on constitutional freedoms. You may have heard of extreme ideas such as banning so-called “assault weapons” or holding local gun shops liable if someone else commits a crime. I’ll always stand against these radical proposals to interfere with your right to bear arms, and if Democrats bring up any of them for a vote in the Michigan House of Representatives, I will proudly vote “NO.”

Earlier this year, I voted “NO” on “red flag” laws — which would take away law-abiding Michiganders’ constitutionally protected firearms and their ability to defend themselves, while violating citizens’ right to a fair legal process. I also voted “NO” on burdensome mandates requiring universal background checks and registration for private gun sales.

In a post in March 2022, Hall touted legislation to lower the penalties for those carrying concealed pistols with expired licenses.

Ryan Bates, the executive director of End Gun Violence Michigan, said in a statement: “This year, the legislature has made historic progress on gun safety measures. It’s concerning to learn that a legislative leader who opposed some of those initiatives has made violent threats in the past. Now is the time when all our leaders in Lansing need to unite around protecting our communities from gun violence.”

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

John Joyce

House Republicans Fighting To Promote Deadly Car Exhaust

Two hundred and fourteen House Republicans approved a bill by Pennsylvania Rep. John Joyce to restrict California’s authority to protect the environment.

Joyce, who represents a central Pennsylvania congressional district that includes Altoona, Chambersburg, and Johnstown, authored the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act with the support of 84 Republican co-sponsors. The bill, which passed the House 222-190, would change the federal Clean Air Act to prevent states from requiring that all new vehicles sold in the future be electric. Eight Democrats voted in favor, 190 voted against.

All eight Republicans representing Pennsylvania backed the bill.

Under current law, states can request a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to implement clean air restrictions that are stronger than federal standards. Because California had specific air quality challenges, the state enacted tougher emissions rules starting in the 1970s.

With climate change already causing record temperatures and unprecedented numbers of damaging storms in California and around the globe, the California Air Resources Board proposed in August 2022 that only zero-emission vehicles be sold in the state by 2035.

Although the state has not yet obtained a waiver to implement its plan, the fossil fuel industry and its GOP allies in Congress hope to block it from receiving one.

“California’s discriminatory waiver request would set a costly and dangerous precedent,” Joyce said as he introduced the bill in March. “One state should not be able to set national policy and Americans should not be coerced into making purchases they cannot afford. Congress must immediately pass the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act to stop this heavy-handed proposal that only takes away choices from American consumers.”

“Every American should be able to choose the type of car or truck they want to drive,” argued American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers president and CEO Chet Thompson in a March press release. “Restricting consumer choice by eliminating competition and banning entire vehicle power trains is the wrong path to achieving cleaner transportation or supporting U.S. energy security; in fact, it could undercut both.”

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee opposed the bill, noting in the committee report that the vague restrictions in the legislation could also imperil other state clean air regulations:

This would put existing waivers dating back to 2013 in jeopardy, upend the entire clean vehicle supply chain, and create uncertainty for the U.S. automotive industry. This bill is a direct attack on over 50 years of Congress and EPA recognizing California’s ability to voluntarily adopt those standards to protect their citizens from dangerous air pollution and climate change. … Instead of joining Democrats in addressing dangerous air pollution, strengthening domestic vehicle manufacturing supply chains, and driving innovation, the Majority is choosing to help their polluter friends at the expensive of public health, technological innovation, states’ rights, and a stronger, cleaner economy for American families.

The bill is unlikely to come up in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate, where only Republicans have backed it thus far.

In a statement of administration policy, the Biden administration said on Tuesday it strongly opposes the bill, warning, “H.R. 1435 would restrict the ability of California and its citizens to address its severe air pollution challenges.”

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Mark Harris

North Carolina Republican Whose 2018 Victory Proved Fraudulent Runs Again

Republican Mark Harris, who has run unsuccessfully for political office and has a documented history of sexist, homophobic, antisemitic, and Islamophobic comments, announced on Tuesday that he will run for an open North Carolina U.S. House seat in 2024.

In a nearly five-minute announcement video, Harris, whose 2018 House race victory was overturned due to evidence of election fraud, baselessly accused Democrats of having “manufactured a scandal to steal the election” from him five years ago and of stealing the 2020 election from President Donald Trump.

“Well, in 2024, President Trump is making a comeback. And so am I,” Harris tells viewers. “I feel called to serve my nation and I’m willing to make the sacrifice needed to do it.”

According to the Charlotte Observer, Harris plans to run in North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District. Incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Bishop is running for state attorney general.

The former president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, Harris, who is the senior pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Mooresville, North Carolina, defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger in the 2018 Republican primary in the state’s 9th Congressional District, after failed campaigns for U.S. Senate in 2014 and U.S. House in 2016, but his general election victory was overturned.

Initial results had shown Harris narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Dan McCready, but a state investigation found evidence that campaign operative McCrae Dowless had illegally collected vote-by-mail ballots and had altered or destroyed those that were not Harris votes. The state board of elections did not certify the results, and a new special election was ordered. Harris denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of the scheme, though his own son testified before the board of elections that he had warned his father about Dowless and his methods. Harris did not opt to run in the 2019 special election for the seat, citing medical issues.

On his 2024 campaign site, Harris’ campaign is already touting his anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ views:

Mark fervently believes in the sanctity of all human life, from conception to natural end. A pivotal figure in the pro-life movement, he asserts that every life is invaluable. Mark is also a stalwart defender of traditional family values, having led the charge for the 2012 marriage amendment and consistently advocating for measures that uphold the foundations of our families.

He has a long record of opposition to women’s rights and claims, “God instructs all Christian wives to submit to their husband.”

In a 2013 sermon on “God’s plan for biblical womanhood,” first flagged in 2018 by the progressive super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, he argued that a “woman of valor” is created to be “a supporter, a nurturer, a caregiver,” and complained:

You and I know that in our culture today, girls are taught from grade school, that we tell them that what is most honorable in life is a career, and their ultimate goal in life is simply to be able to grow up and be independent of anyone or anything. We tell young girls to not be connected humanly as they are designed to do naturally, but instead disconnected, so as to be able to do anything they want any time they want. But nobody has seemed to ask the question that I think is critically important to ask: Is that a healthy pursuit for society? Is that the healthiest pursuit for our homes? Is that the healthiest pursuit for our children? Is that the healthiest pursuit for the sexes in our generation?

(Disclosure: The American Independent Foundation is a partner organization of American Bridge 21st Century.)

In other sermons, he complained about the legalization of no-fault divorce, falsely said that most people who make the “decision” to be LGBTQ+ do so due to having experienced abuse, and claimed that legal abortion is to blame for mass shootings.

In 2018, CNN KFile reported that he had given sermons calling Islam dangerous and the work of Satan and arguing that Middle East peace required that all Jews and Muslims convert to Christianity. “There will never be peace in Jerusalem until the day comes that every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” he said in 2011.

As a candidate in 2014 and 2018, Harris called for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. He proposed in 2014 that Social Security benefits be reduced for future retirees who were then under the age of 50.

According to the Cook Political Report, North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District is solidly Republican.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.