US primary elections: voters to test Trump’s power over Republican party – live

Donald Trump’s reputation as the undisputed Republican kingmaker is on the ballot in today’s Georgia primary, where former vice-president Mike Pence showed up last night to twist the knife further in his old boss’s back.

As polls opened in the party’s primary for governor this morning, Trump’s preferred candidate and former senator David Perdue trailed incumbent Brian Kemp by a significant margin.

Pence, the once loyal deputy tipped for his own White House run in 2024, amplified his divergence from Trump by rallying for Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday night.

“When you say yes to Governor Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will send a deafening message all across America that the Republican party is the party of the future,” Pence said in another stinging rebuke for Trump’s backwards-looking obsession with his 2020 election defeat.

Mike Pence campaigns for Georgia governor Brian Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday.
Mike Pence campaigns for Georgia governor Brian Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday. Photograph: John Amis/EPA

Trump’s thirst for revenge over Kemp for refusing to block Joe Biden’s win in Georgia, or support the big lie that the election was stolen, became calcified in his backing of Perdue, but if polls prove accurate and his preferred candidate goes down, the value of the once-coveted Trump endorsement will be further eroded.

Pence is among a number of senior Republicans who are working to achieve that, however inadvertently. At a conservative conference in Florida in February, Pence said Trump was wrong to think the election could be overturned, and that to try to do so was “un-American”.

In Georgia, particularly, and elsewhere, other Republican Trump critics and former and current governors including Chris Christie of New Jersey and Doug Ducey of Arizona have worked to weaken Trump’s influence.

According to a New York analysis today, most of the big lie-supporting candidates he endorsed in Republican primaries for this year’s midterms won, but many were running unopposed or against unknown or poorly funded opponents.

His record in bigger races is less convincing. Celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz failed to deliver a knockout blow in the Pennsylvania senate primary, and is still locked in a tight race with former treasury department official David McCormick, which is heading for a recount.

And the extremist, scandal-plagued congressman Madison Cawthorn was ousted in North Carolina despite Trump’s pleas for voters to give him another chance.

My colleagues Sam Levine and Alvin Chang have taken this look at the Trump-backed, big-lie advocates running for office in several states in what many say is an alarming attack on democratic principles in the US:

One of the biggest Trump-endorsed winners in today’s primaries is likely to be former NFL star Herschel Walker, who is handily placed to win the Republican nomination for senator in Georgia.

Walker is, as journalist Justin Glawe observed in this profile for the Guardian, a relatively rare political being: a Black, Trump-supporting Republican with a base consisting of largely white conservatives.

Herschel Walker.
Herschel Walker. Photograph: Matt Hamilton/AP

Already a household name from his years in football, Walker went into today’s election with an almost certainly unassailable lead, ahead in some polls by more than 55 points, according to Real Clear Politics.

Some Republican opponents have questioned the electability of Walker, a close friend of Trump, according to the Associated Press. He has a history of violence against women and has made multiple gaffes on the campaign trail.

He also skipped the primary debates. He has been open about his long struggle with mental illness and acknowledged violent urges.

Glawe says opinions are mixed, largely depending on a voter’s race:

African Americans are hesitant to say anything bad about Walker, but they are certainly not jumping at the chance to praise him. Whites, meanwhile, speak of Walker as the personification of the American Dream: he came from nothing, and now he’s something.

Assuming he wins today, Walker faces a far tougher fight in November to unseat Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, who is also far ahead in his own party’s primary.

Ramon Antonio Vargas

A Maryland man who draped himself in a far right-affiliated flag and sprayed a fire extinguisher at police during the deadly Capitol attack on January 6 has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison, according to federal court records.

Matthew Ryan Miller, 23, pleaded guilty in February to felony obstruction of an official proceeding – that day’s joint congressional session to certify Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election – as well as assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers.

At a hearing on Monday, Miller was sentenced to two years and nine months. Judge Randolph Moss also ordered Miller to spend two years on probation after his release and to pay $2,000 in restitution.

Federal prosecutors had asked the judge for a sentence of four years and three months. Seeking leniency for his client, Miller’s attorney, A Eduardo Balarezo, argued that the defendant was abusing alcohol and marijuana and therefore was not thinking logically on the day of the Capitol riots.

“Matthew is a young man who made a terrible decision,” Balarezo wrote in a court filing ahead of the sentencing. “He recognizes that his personal conduct and participation in the riot were not born of a rational decision but rather were fueled by alcohol and marijuana abuse.

“He fully accepts responsibility for what he has done and is not making excuses.”

Balarezo also condemned Trump’s claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by electoral fraudsters as “lies” that drove Miller to join other Trump supporters in the nation’s capital on the day the riots occurred because he thought “it would be cool to be part of history”.

Read the full story:

Confirming what almost everybody in Washington DC circles already knew, MSNBC has announced that the former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who resigned earlier this month, is joining the network as a host and political analyst.

Reports that Psaki had already lined up a job with MSNBC began circulating weeks before her resignation. It sparked questions during some White House briefings about the integrity of being the public face of the Biden administration while negotiating her own paid role within the media.

Jen Psaki.
Jen Psaki. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

But she was widely recognized as a safe pair of hands in the role, and restored stability and daily press briefings to the White House after the turbulence of successive press secretaries during the administration of Donald Trump.

According to MSNBC, she will appear as an analyst during the midterm election season leading up to November, and begin presenting her own streaming show next spring.

In a statement, MSNBC president Rashida Jones said:

Jen’s sharp wit and relatability combined with the mastery of the subjects she covers have made her a household name across the nation.

Her extensive experience in government and on the campaign trail and perspective as a White House and Washington insider is the type of analysis that sets MSNBC apart. She’s a familiar face and trusted authority to MSNBC viewers, and we look forward to her insight during this consequential election season.

Kandiss Taylor has been making waves as the official “fire and brimstone” candidate in Georgia’s race to become Republican candidate for governor.

In an extraordinary campaign rally speech on Sunday, in front of a banner referencing Jesus, guns and babies, the “Christian wife and mother” called for the execution by firing squad of sheriffs who “don’t do the will of the people”.

In a tweet earlier this month, she slammed the “satanic regime” currently running Georgia, and vowed to “bring it to its knees” as “the ONLY candidate bold enough to stand up to the Luciferian Cabal”.

The post earned a rebuke from fans of the late, legendary country artist Charlie Daniels, whose most famous song The Devil Went Down to Georgia tells the tale of of a musician winning Satan’s golden fiddle in a play-off for his soul.

Ma’am it was my understanding that Georgia had solved its devil problems with a fiddling contest.

— Sabretooth Nietzsche (@FeralNietzsche) May 2, 2022

According to RealClearPolitics, Taylor has the support of 6% of Republican voters.

While Mike Pence was rallying with Brian Kemp in person on Monday night in Georgia, Donald Trump appeared on a virtual link to speak up for David Perdue, his choice to become Republican candidate for this fall’s election for governor.

Perdue, Trump said in an election day statement issued Tuesday morning, complete with trademark random uppercase letters, is “a Conservative fighter who isn’t afraid of the Radical Left, and is the only candidate in Georgia who can beat Stacey ‘The Hoax’ Abrams” in November.

Abrams, who lost to Kemp in 2018, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Repeating the lie that Kemp “allowed massive Election Fraud to take place” in Georgia in 2020, Trump insisted: “he can’t win because the MAGA [make America great again] base – which is enormous – will never vote for him”.

Trump went on to repeat his endorsement of former NFL star Herschel Walker for the Georgia Republican senate nomination, a primary race he has dominated, according to polls.

Donald Trump’s reputation as the undisputed Republican kingmaker is on the ballot in today’s Georgia primary, where former vice-president Mike Pence showed up last night to twist the knife further in his old boss’s back.

As polls opened in the party’s primary for governor this morning, Trump’s preferred candidate and former senator David Perdue trailed incumbent Brian Kemp by a significant margin.

Pence, the once loyal deputy tipped for his own White House run in 2024, amplified his divergence from Trump by rallying for Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday night.

“When you say yes to Governor Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will send a deafening message all across America that the Republican party is the party of the future,” Pence said in another stinging rebuke for Trump’s backwards-looking obsession with his 2020 election defeat.

Mike Pence campaigns for Georgia governor Brian Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday.
Mike Pence campaigns for Georgia governor Brian Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday. Photograph: John Amis/EPA

Trump’s thirst for revenge over Kemp for refusing to block Joe Biden’s win in Georgia, or support the big lie that the election was stolen, became calcified in his backing of Perdue, but if polls prove accurate and his preferred candidate goes down, the value of the once-coveted Trump endorsement will be further eroded.

Pence is among a number of senior Republicans who are working to achieve that, however inadvertently. At a conservative conference in Florida in February, Pence said Trump was wrong to think the election could be overturned, and that to try to do so was “un-American”.

In Georgia, particularly, and elsewhere, other Republican Trump critics and former and current governors including Chris Christie of New Jersey and Doug Ducey of Arizona have worked to weaken Trump’s influence.

According to a New York analysis today, most of the big lie-supporting candidates he endorsed in Republican primaries for this year’s midterms won, but many were running unopposed or against unknown or poorly funded opponents.

His record in bigger races is less convincing. Celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz failed to deliver a knockout blow in the Pennsylvania senate primary, and is still locked in a tight race with former treasury department official David McCormick, which is heading for a recount.

And the extremist, scandal-plagued congressman Madison Cawthorn was ousted in North Carolina despite Trump’s pleas for voters to give him another chance.

My colleagues Sam Levine and Alvin Chang have taken this look at the Trump-backed, big-lie advocates running for office in several states in what many say is an alarming attack on democratic principles in the US:

Primary day in Georgia and several other states

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday’s US politics blog. It’s primary day in Georgia and a handful of other states, so buckle in: it’s going to be an absorbing day.

It’s a day of reckoning, kind of, for Donald Trump, when his big lie-supporting endorsee David Perdue takes on incumbent Brian Kemp in the long-awaited Republican primary for governor of Georgia.

Kemp became a target of the former president by refusing to block Joe Biden’s victory in the state, but leads the former Georgia senator Perdue by a handy margin in many polls. And last night Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president, showed up to rally for Kemp in another rebuke for his old boss.

Defeat for Perdue would severely dent Trump’s carefully-crafted reputation as Republican kingmaker.

Other intriguing races are taking place in Texas, where the incumbent Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar faces a stiff challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros, and in Alabama, where Republican congressman and Trump loyalist Mo Brooks is seeking the party’s Senate nomination having lost Trump’s endorsement.

We’ll look at some of the key races throughout the day, and have all the developments in our “after-hours” blog later today hosted by my colleague Joan E Greve.

Here’s what else we’re watching today:

  • Joe Biden is heading home from Asia, where he ruffled Chinese feathers with comments on the defense of Taiwan, and met with Indo-Pacific leaders to bolster US partnerships in the region.
  • Rudy Giuliani stonewalled the 6 January House inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his election defeat during lengthy testimony Friday, the Guardian has learned. The former president’s personal attorney refused to discuss Republican politicians’ involvement in Trump’s plotting.
  • New York’s criminal inquiry into Trump’s business dealings, meanwhile, has subpoenaed his longtime executive assistant for a deposition next week. State attorney general Letitia James plans to question Rhona Graff about allegedly fraudulent financial statements.
  • Vice-president Kamala Harris will be wearing in Alina Romanowski as ambassador to Iraq, and Deborah Lipstadt as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

source: theguardian.com