With Darren Bailey’s nomination as the Republican candidate for governor to challenge Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois voters will have a choice for state chief executive this fall between candidates representing the opposites of a chasmic political ideological divide.
For Bailey, the fall campaign comes down to trying to wage class warfare on Pritzker, labeling him as an “out of touch, trust fund, elitist billionaire” unable to relate to the problems of common citizens.
At the same time, Pritzker’s campaign will be fighting a culture war against Bailey’s social conservatism while attacking the state lawmaker for his endorsement from former President Donald Trump — a two time loser by 17 percentage points in Illinois.
“Darren Bailey cannot side with the insurrectionists at the Capitol, assert that the 2020 election was stolen and say that women and their doctors should be jailed for having an abortion even in cases of rape and incest and expect to be handed the keys to the governor’s office,” Pritzker said Tuesday night at what he billed as a general election “kickoff event” at a South Loop hotel.
“I believe deeply in the fundamental rights of every person to live a life of their own design with accessible health care, quality education, safe schools, clean air, reproductive freedom and civil rights,” Pritzker said. “A place where people can be who they are and love who they love, without fear.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during his primary watch party and general election kickoff on 28, 2022 at the Marriott Marquis Grand Horizon Ballroom in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Bailey’s victory was assisted by Pritzker and the Pritzker-backed Democratic Governors Association, with millions of dollars in ads and mailers asking Republicans if the downstate state senator was “too conservative for Illinois.” Now, for the general election campaign, Pritzker and the DGA will flood voters with the slogan along with Bailey’s ties to Trump.
Bailey has been an ardent opponent of many of the progressive social advances that have been pushed by Pritzker and that have become major topics in light of last week’s ruling by a conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the landmark decision that provided the right to have an abortion without undue government interference.
Bailey is opposed to abortion in all cases except for the life of the mother, while Pritzker has been a national advocate of abortion rights and helped enshrine that right into state law amid other laws that allow taxpayer funding for the abortions of poor women and remove a requirement of parental notification for minors seeking the procedure.
Bailey has vowed to repeal taxpayer funded abortions and reinstate the parental notification law and he has been sharply critical of Pritzker’s vow to make the state a haven for reproductive rights for women across the country. The lawmaker from downstate Xenia also has expressed opposition to gay and transgender rights and has complained of a “woke, liberal agenda” that includes indoctrinating children about sex. He also opposes gun regulation and wants a repeal of the state’s Firearm Owner Identification card.
“Darren Bailey does not represent Illinois values,” Pritzker said. “The Darren Baileys of this world want us to feel alone in a struggle that we’re all facing together. They want to distract us into believing that same-sex marriage, Black history, Disney World and library books are more of a threat to our children than AR-15s and ‘ghost guns,’” he said. “We’ve held the line here in Illinois. We’ve made sure that this state remains an island of freedom among a rising sea of right-wing extremism.”
Bailey said he won’t back off his conservatism for the general election, even to appeal to Chicago voters, saying “people are receptive. They’re ready for something different. We will stay consistent with our message and our work ethic and will not slow down. I have no doubt we will prevail.”
Bailey, who had, like Trump, appealed to disaffected conservative voters who felt government had forgot them, said on Tuesday night, “Tonight, your voices were finally heard — voices of working families, parents, taxpayers, law enforcement and everyday citizens. Voices from the farms, the suburbs, the city of Chicago.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey is joined by his wife, Cindy Stortzum, as he celebrates with supporters during his primary election night victory on June 28, 2022 at Thelma Keller Convention Center in Effingham, Illinois. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Bailey was assisted in his win by $17.1 million from ultra-conservative mega-donor Richard Uihlein, who owns the ULINE office supply business. But it’s unclear how much Uihlein will pump into Bailey’s general election campaign.
“Billionaire Pritzker has deep pockets, but the pockets of the working people, taxpayers, law enforcement, students and parents are getting smaller every day,” Bailey said.
In his nomination acceptance speech, Bailey largely shied away from controversial social issues, even going so far to say that “when we win, Springfield will stop trying to control people’s lives and start working to make them better.”
As much as it was a Bailey victory, it was also an ignominious defeat for the state’s Republican establishment, which lined up behind Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and Ken Griffin’s $50 million financial investment in him and a slate of statewide candidates. In addition to Irvin’s loss, the slate’s candidates in competitive primaries for attorney general and secretary of state also were defeated.
The last candidate to enter the field, Irvin was pitched as an inevitable nominee who could take on Pritzker and statewide Democrats. Party insiders spoke of the campaign’s arrogance in gaining endorsements and warding off additional challenges and attempting to dictate a slate of candidates without internal debate.
At the same time, the largely moribund Illinois GOP apparatus served as little more than an echo chamber for Irvin’s campaign, pushing his agenda in its fundraising emails to party regulars and fundraising donors.
While Irvin is an adept retail campaigner, his campaign offered few opportunities for him to work the stump. Instead most of the work was left to his barrage of TV ads.
But Irvin’s focus on fighting crime — an issue pushed by Griffin — was not a top concern of Republican voters. And the ads also portrayed Irvin as having a hard- bullying image that failed to demonstrate any empathy the candidate had for problems that concerned voters, such as inflation.
Bailey and followers of his brand of arch-conservatism have long chafed under the more moderate Republicans who controlled the party organization for decades. But his victory gives those conservatives who have been on the outside looking in an opportunity to take control, sending the Illinois GOP significantly further rightward, a shove helped by Trump’s presidency.
There’s no secret that Bailey has had differences with Republican leaders in the House and Senate.
He recounts his disdain for state Rep. Avery Bourne of Morrisonville, Irvin’s running mate, for chastising him for his failure to wear a mask in the makeshift House floor at the Bank of Springfield civic center as required by House rules during the height of the pandemic in May 2020. Kicked off the floor by a vote of the chamber, including many of his GOP colleagues, he returned the next day wearing a mask.
Bailey also backed some Republican legislative candidates over those pushed by party leaders.
“We will take back our government from the political elites and the failed establishment from both parties,” Bailey vowed.
The GOP’s more moderate wing, reeling from the collapse of Irvin’s candidacy, is now fearful of the impact of Bailey’s candidacy as he leads the ticket for Springfield offices.
“We are really going to get our ass handed to us,” predicted one Republican in party legislative leadership, where the GOP has been a super-minority to House and Senate Democrats. “If we thought where we were was bad, this is going to be a helluva lot worse.”
But Bailey said people should dismiss the naysayers.
“Springfield and the political elites have failed every one of us and now the elites and the press say that Pritzker is a shoo-in. They say our fate’s set, that a farmer can’t beat a billionaire,” he said. “Friends, the funny thing is these same people said that we couldn’t win the primary.”
MADRID/KYIV, June 29 (Reuters) – NATO on Wednesday branded Russia the most “direct threat” to allied security after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and vowed to modernise Kyiv’s beleaguered armed forces, saying it stood four-square behind Ukrainians’ “heroic defence of their country”.
Completing a summit dominated by the invasion and the geopolitical upheaval it has prompted, NATO formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance and pledged to reinforce combat-ready and rapid-reaction forces on its eastern flank, closest to Russia.
President Joe Biden announced additional U.S. land, air and sea deployments across Europe from Spain in the west to Romania and Poland bordering Ukraine. They included a permanent army headquarters with accompanying battalion in Poland – the first
full-time U.S. deployment on NATO’s eastern fringes. read more
As the 30 national NATO leaders were meeting in Madrid, Russian forces intensified attacks in Ukraine, including missile strikes on the southern Mykolaiv region close to front lines.
The mayor of Mykolaiv city said a Russian missile had killed at least five people in a residential building there, while Moscow said its forces had hit what it called a training base for foreign mercenaries in the region.
The governor of eastern Luhansk province reported “fighting everywhere” in a battle around the hilltop city of Lysychansk, which Russian forces are trying to encircle as they gradually advance in a campaign to conquer all of Ukraine’s industrialised eastern Donbas region on behalf of separatist proxies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated to NATO leaders that Kyiv needed more weapons and money, and faster, to erode Russia’s huge edge in artillery and missile firepower, and warned that the Kremlin’s ambitions did not stop at Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba praised NATO’s “clear-eyed stance” on Russia and said the summit outcome proved “it can take difficult but essential decisions”.
He added: “An equally strong and active position on Ukraine will help to protect Euro-Atlantic security and stability.”
Kyiv has voiced concern that the West has been slow to offer it more than moral support against an invasion that has devastated cities, killed thousands and sent millions fleeing.
‘FULL SOLIDARITY’
A NATO communique called Russia the “most significant and direct threat to the allies’ security and stability”, a nod to the precipitous deterioration in relations with Russia – earlier classified as a “strategic partner” – since the invasion.
Russia’s “war of aggression against Ukraine has shattered peace and gravely altered our security environment,” NATO said in a new Strategic Concept document, its first since 2010.
“A strong independent Ukraine is vital for the stability of the Euro-Atlantic area.”
NATO agreed a package of support aimed at modernising Ukraine’s largely Soviet-era military. “We stand in full solidarity with the government and the people of Ukraine in the heroic defence of their country,” the communique said.
“We are sending a strong message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: ‘You will not win’,” said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the summit’s host.
The U.S.-led alliance said it would also deploy more “robust in-place combat-ready forces” on its eastern flank, scaled up from existing battlegroups to brigade-size units.
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A view of the explosion as a Russian missile strike hits a shopping mall amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a location given as Kremenchuk, in Poltava region, Ukraine in this still image taken from handout CCTV footage released June 28, 2022. CCTV via Instagram @zelenskiy_official/Handout via REUTERS
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had announced ahead of the summit that the alliance planned to increase the number of troops on high alert by seven-fold to more than 700,000.
Zelenskiy, in a video link-up with the summit, said Ukraine needed $5 billion per month for its defence and protection.
“This is not a war being waged by Russia against only Ukraine. This is a war for the right to dictate conditions in Europe – for what the future world order will be like,” he said.
NATO’s invitation to Sweden and Finland to join the bloc marks one of the most momentous shifts in European security in decades as Helsinki and Stockholm drop a tradition of neutrality in response to Russia’s invasion. read more
Russia has long complained about a perceived expansion of Western blocs towards its borders. But its sweep into Ukraine – which it calls a “special military operation” against security threats to Russia – has given new impetus and unity to NATO.
Ukraine and its Western supporters accuse Russia of an unprovoked and imperial-style land grab in Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said NATO’s expansion was “destabilising” and would not improve its members’ security.
GRINDING WAR
Russia’s stepped-up attacks in Ukraine, after a missile strike killed at least 18 people in a shopping mall in a central city far from front lines on Monday, come as Russian forces make slow but relentless progress in a war now in its fifth month.
Still, Western analysts say the Russians are suffering heavy casualties and running down resources while the prospect of more Western weapons reaching Ukraine, including long-range missile systems, make Moscow’s need to consolidate gains more urgent.
In Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said eight Russian missiles had struck the city, including an apartment block. Photographs showed smoke billowing from a four-storey building with its upper floor partly destroyed.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces carried out strikes on a military training base for “foreign mercenaries” near the city and also hit ammunition fuel storage. Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
A river port and ship-building centre just off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has been a bastion against Russian efforts to push westward towards Ukraine’s main port of Odesa.
Mykolaiv regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said Russian shelling had intensified and mostly civilian buildings were being hit.
Oleksander Vilkul, governor of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, said Russian shelling had increased there too.
Rescuers were still searching for dozens of missing at the Kremenchuk mall on Wednesday, two days after the missile strike.
Moscow has denied targeting the mall, saying it had struck an arms depot nearby, which exploded. read more
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Russia was likely to keep making major strikes in an effort to hamper Ukrainian resupplies to frontlines, and more civilian casualties were likely.
A lawyer for Virginia Thomas wrote in a letter to the Jan. 6 House committee Tuesday that he wants “a better justification for why Mrs. Thomas’s testimony is relevant,” before he can recommend the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sit for an interview.
“Based on my understanding of the communications that spurred the Committee’s request, I do not understand the need to speak with Mrs. Thomas,” the lawyer, Mark Paoletta, wrote to the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Paoletta’s eight-page letter, which was obtained by CBS News, was first reported on by the Daily Caller.
Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said on June 24 that he expected Thomas to appear before the committee, but said they hadn’t yet agreed on “the parameters” for her interview.
But Paoletta in his letter expressed “serious concerns” about the committee’s effort to meet with Thomas, and claimed “the Thomases have been subjected to an avalanche of death threats and other abuse.” He claimed that he reviewed communications between Thomas and Eastman and found “not a single document” showing coordination between the two.
“And further, all of these emails were exchanged on or before December 9, before the electors met and were certified by each of their states,” Paoletta wrote.
Regarding Thomas’ communications with Meadows, Paoletta wrote she “simply expressed concerns about the 2020 election.”
“Importantly, Mrs. Thomas never claimed to have first-hand knowledge about election fraud,” Paoletta wrote.
The Jan. 6 committee in recent weeks has held several hearings to share information it has learned with the public. Meadows’ former top aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, was the star witness of Tuesday’s surprise hearing. Hutchinson testified that on Jan. 2, Meadows told her “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”
The Jan. 6 Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
And in the Republican primary for secretary of state, Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk, who is under indictment in relation to a scheme to find evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent, placed third in a contest in which she was the best-known candidate.
Ms. Peters and the second-place finisher, Mike O’Donnell, who has also promoted 2020 falsehoods, combined to win a majority of the vote, but both placed well behind Pam Anderson, a longtime local election official.
The Colorado races are hardly emblematic of Republican voters nationwide. In Illinois, Mr. Bailey and Representative Mary Miller, who both refused to accept the 2020 results, strolled to victory in their primaries. New York Republicans gave nearly two-thirds of their primary vote for governor to Representative Lee Zeldin and Andrew Giuliani, who have also cast doubt on the results.
It’s Darren Bailey’s party in Illinois.
Mr. Bailey, the newly minted Republican nominee for governor of Illinois, didn’t just trounce a field of better-funded candidates (with a lot of help from Mr. Pritzker). His coattails extended down the ballot to lift an array of like-minded conservatives.
Throughout Central and Southern Illinois, signs read “Trump-Bailey-Miller,” highlighting the alliance between the former president, Mr. Bailey and Ms. Miller. The congresswoman, who apologized last year after making an approving reference to Hitler, won her primary against Representative Rodney Davis after the two were drawn into a district together.
WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) – Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential limousine on Jan. 6, 2021, when his security detail declined to take him to the U.S. Capitol where his supporters were rioting, a former aide testified on Tuesday.
The then-president dismissed concerns that some supporters gathered for his fiery speech outside the White House that day carried AR-15-style rifles, instead asking security to stop screening attendees with metal-detecting magnetometers so the crowd would look larger, the aide testified.
“Take the effing mags away; they’re not here to hurt me,” Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a top aide to Trump’s then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, quoted Trump as saying that morning.
Hutchinson, in testimony on the sixth day of House of Representatives hearings into the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol assault by Trump’s followers, said the conversation was relayed to her by Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was Trump’s deputy chief of staff for operations.
The New York Times and NBC, citing sources in the Secret Service, said the head of Trump’s security detail, Robert Engel, and the limousine driver were prepared to testify under oath that Trump never lunged for the steering wheel. Engel was in the room when Ornato relayed the story, Hutchinson said.
The New York Times and CNN, citing unnamed sources, said Ornato also denied the story and was willing to testify.
Citing her conversation with Ornato, Hutchinson testified that Trump struggled with Secret Service agents who insisted he return to the White House rather than join supporters storming the Capitol where Congress was meeting to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over him in the presidential election.
Trump’s supporters were roused by his false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud
“‘I’m the effing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,'” Hutchinson quoted an enraged Trump as saying. She said Trump tried from the back seat to grab the steering wheel of the heavily armored presidential vehicle and lunged in anger at a Secret Service official.
Trump, a Republican, denied her account of his actions.
“Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is ‘sick’ and fraudulent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media app.
In a statement, the Secret Service said it was cooperating fully with the committee and would continue to do so.
“We learned of the new information shared at today’s hearing and plan on responding formally and on the record as soon as they can accommodate us,” it added.
Hutchinson’s lawyer Jody Hunt wrote on Twitter that she had “testified, under oath, and recounted what she was told. Those with knowledge of the episode also should testify under oath.”
Dozens of courts, election officials and reviews by Trump’s own administration rejected his fraud claims, including outlandish stories about an Italian security firm and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s tampering with U.S. ballots.
Four people died the day of the attack, one fatally shot by police and the others of natural causes. More than 100 police officers were injured, and one died the next day. Four officers later died by suicide.
WITNESS TAMPERING?
At the end of about two hours of testimony, Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the nine-member House panel, presented possible evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
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Chip Somodevilla/Pool via REUTERS
Cheney showed messages to unidentified witnesses advising them that an unidentified person would be watching their testimony closely and expecting loyalty.
Republican Mick Mulvaney, who served as Trump’s chief of staff before Meadows, tweeted: “There is an old maxim: it’s never the crime, it’s always the cover-up. Things went very badly for the former President today. My guess is that it will get worse from here.”
Hutchinson told the committee that Meadows and Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani had sought pardons from Trump.
Giuliani told WSYR radio in Syracuse, New York, on Tuesday that he had not sought a pardon.
Tuesday’s hastily called hearing marked the first time this month, in six hearings, that a former White House official appeared for live testimony.
Speaking in soft but assured tones, Hutchinson, 26, painted a picture of panicked White House officials bristling at the possibility of Trump’s joining what was to become a violent mob pushing its way into the Capitol, hunting for his vice president, Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers who were certifying the victory of Biden over Trump.
‘EVERY CRIME IMAGINABLE’
The White House officials’ worries focused on the potential criminal charges Trump and others could face.
“We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable,” Hutchinson said White House counselor Pat Cipollone told her if Trump were to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“‘We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen, this would be a really terrible idea for us. We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day,'” Cipollone said, Hutchinson testified.
Hutchinson, who sat doors away from Trump’s Oval Office, testified that days before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Meadows knew of the looming violence that could unfold.
“‘Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,'” she quoted him as saying inside the White House on Jan. 2 with her boss.
She testified that Giuliani had said of Jan. 6: “‘We’re going to the Capitol, it’s going to be great. The president’s going to be there; he’s going to look powerful.'”
At that point, she told the committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans: “It was the first moment that I remembered feeling scared and nervous of what could happen on Jan. 6.”
This month’s hearings featured videotaped testimony from figures including Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his former attorney general Bill Barr. They and other witnesses testified that they did not believe Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud and tried to dissuade him of them.
Before resigning, Barr told the Associated Press in an interview there was no evidence of fraud. That angered Trump so much that he threw his lunch at a White House wall, breaking a porcelain dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall, according to video testimony to the committee from Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s White House press secretary at the time.
Hutchinson told the committee it was not unusual for Trump to throw food when he was angry: “There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere.”
(This story corrects paragraph 12 to drop typographical error)
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
The NATO summit continues in Spain on Wednesday, with a historic deal already under its belt after the alliance reached a deal with Turkey to accept membership bids from Sweden and Finland.
The two nations moved to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raised fears about Russian aggression elsewhere. The summit is arguably the most important meeting of the alliance in recent months, and years.
NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced earlier in the week that the Western military organization would increase the number of troops within its rapid response force — which comprises land, air, sea and special forces units that are capable of being deployed quickly — to 300,000 from about 40,000 personnel.
In Ukraine, the search and rescue operation following the Russian strike on a shopping mall in central Ukraine continued Tuesday. Twenty people are now confirmed to have died in the strike and at least 59 were injured in the attack.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said yesterday that there are no survivors under the rubble of the mall because of the fire that broke out after the missile hit the building.
Russia reacts to NATO expansion deal, calling it ‘destabilizing’
Russia gave an initial reaction to the news that NATO reached a deal to admit Sweden and Finland to the alliance, after Turkey dropped its opposition to the expansion.
Restating Moscow’s “negative” view of the expansion, Ryabkov said it “does not add security” to either the prospective members nor the alliance as a whole, “nor to other countries that perceive the alliance as a threat,” Ryabkov added.
The deputy minister said the enlargement continued what Moscow sees as NATO’s “aggressive containment” strategy when it comes to Russia.
“We understand NATO’s rhetoric. A new strategic concept will be adopted, where Russia is going to be called a threat to the alliance. This has nothing to do with real life. It is the alliance that poses a threat to us,” Ryabkov said.
“But we will do everything to ensure that our security and the security of our allies is ensured under any conditions, regardless of any expansionary waves, regardless of any agreements that could be reached on the eve of the Madrid summit between Ankara and Stockholm and Helsinki, in other formats,” he said.
Ryabkov’s comments come after the foreign ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a memorandum on Tuesday to confirm that Ankara will back the Scandinavian countries’ NATO bids during a summit in Madrid this week.
The move was widely anticipated as one that would anger Moscow as it roughly doubles the land borders that Russia will have with NATO countries. Finland and Sweden both said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had changed the dial on membership and had reversed the rationale for their historically non-aligned statuses.
“Finland joining NATO is a radical change in the country’s foreign policy,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement in May. “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop threats to its national security arising.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia’s shortage of modern, precise strike missiles likely to cause more civilian deaths, UK says
Russia’s shortage of more modern precision strike weapons and the professional shortcomings of their targeting planners will highly likely result in further civilian casualties like those caused by Russia’s deadly strike on a Ukrainian shopping mall on Monday, the U.K. said on Wednesday.
The U.K.’s defense ministry said in its latest intelligence update that while there was a “realistic possibility” that Russia was targeting some kind of infrastructure target in the strike, it was not the first time that its targeting had been inaccurate, nor was it likely to be the last.
“Russia’s inaccuracy in conducting long range strikes has previously resulted in mass civilian casualty incidents, including at Kramatorsk railway station on 9 April 2022,” the ministry said on Twitter.
“Russian planners highly likely remain willing to accept a high level of collateral damage when they perceive military necessity in striking a target,” it added, noting that “it is almost certain that Russia will continue to conduct strikes in an effort to interdict the resupplying of Ukrainian frontline forces.”
The strike on the Amstor shopping mall in the Poltava province in central Ukraine on Monday killed at least 20 people and injured many others. Ukraine released footage of the strike last night:
It was decried as a war crime by the G-7 leaders who met earlier this week as the strike took place, but Russia said it was aiming at a nearby depot which is said contained Western arms given to Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials believe a Kh-22 missile was used in the strike although this has not been independently confirmed. Kh-22s are Soviet-era, long-range, anti-ship missiles that were first used in the 1960s. Military experts believe Russian forces could be turning to older, less accurate missiles as its stockpile of more modern ones runs low.
– Holly Ellyatt
Ukraine releases dramatic footage of shopping mall strike
Ukraine’s government has released footage showing the missile that hit the Amstor shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine on Monday, a strike that killed at least 20 people and injured 59 others.
The video, which shows CCTV footage from a machinery plant near the mall on Monday, was shown in Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy nightly address on Tuesday, and posted on Facebook.
CNBC has not been able to independently verify that the missile is a Kh-22 as stated in the tweet, and has been stated by several Ukrainian officials.
Kh-22 missiles are large, long-range anti-ship missiles that were developed by the Soviet Union and first used in the early 1960s, intended for use against U.S. Navy aircraft carriers in the Cold War.
The strike on the shopping mall was condemned as a war crime by Western leaders. For its part, Russia said it was targeting a depot of weapons donated by the U.S. and Europe that it said was located near the mall, a claim dismissed by Ukraine.
– Holly Ellyatt
At least 4,731 civilians have been killed in Ukraine during war, UNHCR says
At least 4,731 civilians have been killed since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though the actual figures likely to be far higher given the difficult nature of gathering accurate data during periods of war.
Matilda Bogner, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said on Wednesday morning at a presentation on the human rights situation in the country that “civilians continue to bear the brunt of hostilities” in Ukraine.
Bogner said more than 10,000 people have been officially documented as being killed or injured, including several hundred children, between the start of the conflict on Feb. 24 and May 15. The data is largely based on field visits and interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights violations.
“I stress that the actual figures are considerably higher,” she added.
Russia attacks on civilian infrastructure, from homes to educational and places of worship, did not comply with international humanitarian law, Bognor said. On a much lower scale, it also appears that Ukrainian armed forces did not comply with the law in eastern parts of the country, she added.
— Holly Ellyatt
What to expect from this NATO summit, and what’s already happened
The NATO summit taking place in Madrid will be a historic one, its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday, with a deal on the table to admit new members and a proposal of a new “strategic concept” which would be a blueprint to, he said, “take NATO into the future in a more competitive and dangerous world.”
With the alliance set to shift its defenses, Stoltenberg said the summit would be a “historic and transformative” for the alliance.
NATO has already reached a deal to allow Sweden and Finland to join the alliance after Turkey dropped its opposition to the bid. It has also already announced that it will massively increase its rapid response force to 300,000, up from a current level of around 40,000 troops.
As he spoke to the press after arriving at the summit Wednesday, CNBC’s Hadley Gamble asked Stoltenberg about the timeline and structure of those additional troops.
“I expect them to be available and ready next year, that’s the plan. Those forces will be paid for and organized by the different allied NATO countries,” he noted, and would then be pre-assigned to specific NATO territories, most in the eastern part of the alliance, where they would train and become experienced with that terrain.
Pre-positioned heavy equipment and pre-assigned forces in certain countries would allow NATO to strengthen its deterrents and defenses, Stoltenberg said.
— Holly Ellyatt
‘Russian terror’ responsible for the deaths of many innocent Ukrainian civilians, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia is responsible for “state terrorism” in Ukraine, with over 2,800 Russian missiles having hit its cities so far during the war.
In his latest address overnight, Zelenskyy said he had taken part in a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council, convened at the request of Ukraine on Tuesday, in order to “take advantage of all international levers to bring Russia to justice for state terrorism.”
“For everything done by the Russian army against Ukrainians in Kremenchuk, in Ochakiv, in Lysychansk, in Kharkiv, in Dnipro, in many, many other cities of Ukraine. As of this evening, the total number of Russian missiles that have hit our cities is already 2,811. And there are many more air bombs, many artillery shells,” he said.
The president noted that the U.N. Security Council today stood in silence to commemorate all Ukrainians killed by the Russian army so far during the conflict, noting that “the members of the Russian delegation looked at everyone present in the Security Council and also decided to stand up … but everyone knows that it is Russian terror, it is the Russian state that is killing innocent people in this war waged against the Ukrainian people.”
Russia has again been accused of war crimes after a Russian missile hit a shopping mall in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine. The strike killed at least 20 civilians shopping in the building and injured at least 59 people, with others still missing. Ukraine’s interior minister said yesterday that there were no survivors under the rubble because of the fire that spread through the building after the missile strike.
Russia has repeatedly denied that it has targeted civilians or civilian infrastructure despite multiple instances refuting those claims. It has also spread falsehoods and disinformation about such attacks; on Tuesday, Russia said it was targeting a depot of weapons donated by the U.S. and Europe near the mall, a claim dismissed by Ukraine.
— Holly Ellyatt
‘We are in a hybrid war,’ German foreign minister says
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has described the situation the country faces as a “hybrid war,” with the conflict in Ukraine having deep implications for the energy landscape in Europe, and Germany having to put plans in place in case its gas supplies — which are supplied via Nord Stream 1 from Russia to Germany — are cut by Moscow.
“We are faced now in Germany with the question now that if there’s no gas coming through Nord Stream 1 … we have to decide which institution may be cut off the grid,” Baerbock told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Tuesday.
“We are in a time of war, in Ukraine people are dying, but we are in a hybrid war where the war is also being done [fought] by energy,” Baerbock said.
Germany is particularly reliant on Russian gas supplies via its Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Before the war, there were plans for this supply to be doubled with a second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, despite misgivings about the pipeline from the United States, Ukraine and other countries in eastern Europe, particularly Poland.
NATO strikes a deal with Turkey to allow Sweden and Finland to join
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the world’s most powerful military alliance reached a deal to admit Sweden and Finland after resolving the concerns of holdout Turkey.
The push to add Sweden and Finland to the world’s most powerful military alliance comes as Russia’s assault on Ukraine amplifies fears of other countries in the region. Moscow, long wary of NATO expansion, has opposed the two nations’ plans to join the alliance.
Both Finland and Sweden already meet many of the requirements to be NATO members. Some of the requirements include having a functioning democratic political system, a willingness to provide economic transparency and the ability to make military contributions to NATO missions.
However, all 30 NATO members must approve a country’s bid for it to be accepted into the alliance.
— Amanda Macias
Satellite image shows destruction of shopping mall in Ukraine
A satellite image by Planet Labs shows the destruction of a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging platform that more than 1,000 people were inside at the time of the Russian rocket attack, according to an NBC News report.
“This is not an off-target missile strike, this is a calculated Russian strike — exactly at this shopping mall,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address.
G-7 leaders condemned the Russian missile strike and pledged to hold “Russian President Putin and those responsible” to account.
The Kremlin has previously denied that it targets civilians.
— Amanda Macias
Europe needs ‘contingency plans’ in case Russia cuts gas supplies altogether
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the EU’s stocks of gas are increasing as the bloc looks to other suppliers aside from Russia, but added that the region must have contingency plans in case Russia cuts its supplies.
“There will have to be — particularly if Russia decides to cut supply altogether — contingency plans but [gas] stocks are increasing nicely. We’ve reached a good level of stocks … and if we complete the stocks we are able to manage this transition to the time when we will be completely independent from Russian gas,” he told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at a press conference.
Draghi said Europe had implemented measures to tackle the economic fallout of the conflict including diversifying its suppliers and investing in renewable forms of energy.
“We went all over [for other suppliers], and we’ve replaced a good deal of the Russia gas,” he said, noting that 40% of the EU’s gas supplies came from Russia last year, whereas now it was down to 25%.
A recession in Europe on account of the war in Ukraine is not an immediate forecast, Draghi also noted, saying: “For the time being, the economy of the euro area is slowing down but we don’t foresee a recession now. The Italian economy is actually going better than we expected a couple of months ago.”
What was a dark day for Democracy turned out to be a shining night for late night TV.
Cassidy Hutchinson, the top aide to former President Donald Trump’s last Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, gave riveting testimony of scenes that bordered on the absurd as the United States Capitol came under siege by Trump’s supporters and in the lead up to that event.
One of the stories she told was how Trump, as described later by Trevor Noah, lost his sh** when he found out about an interview his then-Attorney General Bill Barr had given to the Associated Press.
Hubbard related a scene she witnessed while walking into the dining room where, according to the White House valet who was about to clean ketchup off the wall, the then-president had thrown the his lunch — and plate — against the wall.
Asked if that were an isolated example Hubbard replied, “There were several instances throughout my tenure where I was aware of him throwing dishes or flipping the table cloth to let all of the contents of the table go onto the floor.”
Or as Noah summed it up on the Daily Show, “Trump was constantly throwing food tantrums.”
Many of the hosts keyed in on what Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host Chelsea Handler called a “truly insane” moment. Hutchinson described being told that Trump tried to head to the Capitol himself on January 6. “I’m the f*cking president, take me up to the Capitol now,” Trump is alleged to have screamed at his Secret Service detail in the presidential limousine.
Denied the request by agents, Trump allegedly tried to grab the wheel of the armor-plated car, known as the Beast, to steer the vehicle himself.
“Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel,” Secret Service agent Robert Engel informed Trump, according to what Hutchinson was told. “We are going back to the West Wing, we are not going to the Capitol,” Engel continued, grasping one of Trump’s arms. Trump supposedly then tried to attack Engel, the head of his Secret Service detail.
“That is no way to treat a Secret Service agent. That is how you treat a contestant backstage at the Miss Universe contest,” quipped Handler before adding, “It turns out Donald Trump was even more of a sh**bag than we previously thought.”
Stephen Colbert emphasized the bit about Trump’s alleged lunge toward Engel.
“He went for the throat!” said Colbert. “When you join the Secret Service you expect to take one for the president, but not from the president.”
Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show came back with, “Always good when you need a Secret Service to protect the Secret Service.
In a six-way race to face Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker this November, it will be State Sen. Darren Bailey that will win the Republican nomination, NBC News projects.
Bailey, who was elected to the state senate from Xenia, received significant downstate support and a coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump in the late stages of the primary cycle.
Bailey fended off a crowded field that included Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who was an early favorite in the campaign after using $50 million in donations from Illinois billionaire Ken Griffin to purchase a slew of televised advertisements.
Irvin also faced a withering barrage of attack ads from Pritzker himself and from the Democratic Governor’s Association in the late stages of the campaign.
Bailey also bested businessman Jesse Sullivan, whose outsider message was seen as a key as he racked up support late in the election.
Businessman Gary Rabine, former State Sen. Paul Schimpf and attorney Max Solomon all finished well off the pace in the race, according to projections.
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Now Bailey and his running mate will face Pritzker and Julianna Stratton in the November election. Pritzker will seek a second term in office, while Bailey will hope to unseat the man that he tangled with in courtrooms throughout the COVID pandemic, filing lawsuits over the governor’s health mitigations and policies.
Bailey has criticized the governor’s economic policies, pointing to the departure of several company headquarters in recent months as evidence that Pritzker has negatively impacted the number of jobs in Illinois.
The Democratic Governors’ Association has already run ads against Bailey, calling his policies “far-right” and out-of-step with the viewpoints of Illinois voters.
The House Jan. 6 hearings have over-delivered on revelations and drama — unspooling as a disciplined, captivating summer series that is a new template for effective congressional hearings in the modern era.
Why it matters: The committee ditched the flabby traditional format and has methodically built a taut, colorful narrative with a prosecutor’s precision and a cinematographer’s flair.
Here’s how the committee did it:
The committee sticks to a single storyline: former President Trump did it. The staff is weaving together thousands of hours of testimony, and tens of thousands of documents, to make that single point. The committee resists tangents about House Republicans or other ancillary players and pares everything back to point the finger at Trump.
The committee brought in former ABC News president James Goldston, who has been producing each hearing as if it were a “20/20” episode — raw enough to be credible, but scripted enough to sell the story in the allotted time. Goldston has added network-style graphics — an animation of the Capitol breach, a seating chart for a bonkers Oval Office meeting, a West Wing map yesterday to show how close Cassidy Hutchinson sat to the Oval Office.
The committee is limiting hearings to a couple of hours, rather than the into-the-night grind of so many high-profile hearings. And the committee ditched long opening statements. Instead, a member reads a short introduction, then plunges into live testimony.
The committee videotaped the depositions, rather than the more common congressional practice of relying on written transcripts. That allows members to cue up a quick clip of a key point at the hearing. So the live witnesses are ones the committee knows will have emotional power. Any witness who might throw a jab is consigned to video.
The committee uses mostly Republican voices, including legit former Trump insiders — with Hutchinson delivering a spellbinding first-hand account of life in Trump’s post-election West Wing.
The committee includes “deep teases,” as TV news calls it — hinting at future testimony and leaving the audience wanting more. Yesterday’s barnburner ended with a cliffhanger: Committee vice chair Liz Cheney suggested Trump loyalists had been tampering with witnesses — and said the committee is looking into it.
In this exhibit from yesterday’s hearing, President Trump is referred to by his Secret Service code name, Mogul. Exhibit: House select committee via AP
Reality check: The committee’s work is infinitely easier because there are no dissenting voices. Usually, the minority party can stall and rebut.
But the committee’s only two Republicans — Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — are totally aligned with the committee’s goals.
The bottom line: We have no idea whether committee members will deter Trump from running or winning in 2024. But they’ve orchestrated a riveting six episodes — with the season finale still to come.
She told the committee that the president said, “I don’t f***ing care that they have weapons,” when he was warned his supporters were heavily armed in the moments before he encouraged them to march on the Capitol.
Once the president finished speaking to throngs of supporters on January 6, he was reportedly “irate” his security staff didn’t want him to make an unplanned visit to the Capitol, so much so that he tried to grab the wheel of the presidential limousine and allegedly attacked a Secret Service agent.
Eventually, according to Ms Hutchinson’s testimony, as rioters breached the Capitol, the president nonchalantly said vice-president Mike Pence “deserves” to have extremists chanting that he should be hung for refusing to overturn the 2020 election.
The former president attacked the testimony, claiming he barely knew the “sick” Ms Hutchinson.
Cheney shares article arguing case for prosecuting Trump is getting stronger
Republican representative Liz Cheney, a member of the House select committee investigating the last year’s 6 January attack at the Capitol, retweeted an article that argued that the case to prosecute the former president is getting stronger after the bombshell hearing.
The article, titled “The Case for Prosecuting Donald Trump Just Got Much Stronger” from The Dispatch by David French concluded that Mr Trump may not face criminal charges for his actions but the latest testimonies have helped link the former president to violent actions in the run up to Capitol riots.
In cool, measured tones, that were in stark contrast to the incidents she was describing, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said she was told Mr Trump wanted to go to the Capitol so badly he attempted to grab the steering wheel of “The Beast” after being told he was going back to the White House instead.
He also grabbed at the “clavicle” of a Secert Serice agent, Ms Hutchinson testified.
Tony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff, told Ms Hutchinson that Robert Engel, the Secret Service agent in charge on January 6 2021, had repeatedly told Mr Trump on their way back to the White House after his rally speech that it was not safe to go to the Capitol.
Watch moment when aide says Trump ‘threw his lunch against wall’
In one of the gripping scenes Cassidy Hutchinson recalled, she Mr Trump threw his lunch — including the plate it had been served on — against the wall of his private dining room. It left behind a smear of ketchup on the wall.
She said it was in reaction to former attorney general William Barr’s declaration that the presidential election had not been tainted by fraud.
Is Donald Trump trying to tamper with January 6 testimony? It sure seems like someone is.
The January 6 committee is alarmed that Donald Trump or his allies may be attempting to tamper with the testimony of witnesses participating in the congressional inquiry.
“Most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” committee vice chairwoman Liz Cheney said on Tuesday.
The committee shared anonymous testimony on Tuesday from January 6 witnesses detailing mob-style threats from unnamed people inside the Trump camp.
“What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I’m on the team, I’m doing the right thing, I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World,” the witness told legislators.
Read our full report on this new dimension to the January 6 hearings.
Aide’s explosive testimony that Trump knew of weapons could bolster civil suits
A lawyer, who is pressing a lawsuit against Donald Trump and others on behalf of 10 Democratic lawmakers said the damming testimony yesterday could give a major boost to the civil lawsuits against the former president.
“The testimony that came today I think was very powerful confirmation that Trump knew and expected the crowd that was assembled was going to engage in violent action directed at the Capitol with the intention of interfering with the ability to ratify the results of the election,” Joseph Sellers said.
He said the claims that Mr Trump was aware of weapons in the crowd were “highly relevant” to the civil suits and could make him liable for his intention of using violence and threats to force members of Congress to overturn the election.
“This evidence goes a good deal towards confirming that that was the purpose of Trump’s actions,” he added.
John Eastman dismisses bid to block phone records from Jan 6 committee
John Eastman, a lawyer linked to Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the result of the 2020 election, has voluntarily dropped a lawsuit aimed to block the 6 January committee from obtaining his phone records.
In a filing on late Tuesday, Mr Eastman dropped the suit, saying that he has been assured by the committee that it was only to seek his call logs and not the content of the messages.
The House select committee has long said that it does not have the authority to obtain the content of the messages.
It came as he claimed the FBI stopped him outside a restaurant and seized his phone. And a new video appears to show the moment the incident occurred.
ICYMI: Cassidy Hutchinson: Who is ex-Meadows aide testifying before January 6 committee?
Instead, it was Cassidy Hutchinson, who ended the Trump administration as a special assistant to the president assigned as then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ assistant.
Here’s Andrew Feinberg’s look at the surprising star witness.
Another shocking turn (sorry) in Steering Wheelgate
One of the stranger stories from today’s January 6 hearing is that Donald Trump allegedly lunged for the wheel of a presidential limo when he was upset his staff wouldn’t take him to the Capitol.
Former White House aide testifed that ex-president lunged at driver to turn towards US Capitol
However, Bobby Engel, a lead Secret Service agent protecting Donald Trump, as well as the presidential limo driver are both prepared to testify that such an incident never occured, according to NBC News.
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, offered explosive testimony Tuesday that former President Trump wanted to get to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – even grabbing the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle and lunging at his head of security when he was told he could not go, she said.
Hutchinson’s former boss has not complied with subpoenas to appear before the committee. She testified Tuesday that he and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani sought presidential pardons.
Among Hutchinson’s extraordinary revelations was that Trump was told that the crowd at his rally at the Ellipse ahead of the Capitol riot had guns and other weapons. She testified that Trump said “something to the effect of, ‘I don’t effing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away,'” referring to the magnetometers, or metal detectors, used for security screening.
Cassidy Hutchinson appears during a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, at the Capitol, in Washington, June 28, 2022.
POOL / REUTERS
Hutchinson also testified that Giuliani said to her on Jan. 2 “‘Cass, are you excited for the 6th? It’s going to be a great day.'”
Hutchinson said Tuesday that she asked Giuliani to explain the significance of Jan. 6. She said he responded, “We’re going to the Capitol. It’s going to be great.The president is going to be there, he’s going to look powerful,” and he encouraged her to speak with Meadows.
After Giuliani left the White House campus, Hutchinson said she did ask Meadows about Jan. 6 and he said “‘it sounds like we’re going to go to the Capitol.'”
“‘There’s a lot going on Cass, but I don’t know, things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,'” Meadows told Hutchinson, she recalled.
Hutchinson also testified about how angry Trump was after Attorney General Bill Barr told the Associated Press in an interview after the 2020 election that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change its outcome.
Entering the dining room at the White House, Hutchinson observed a valet changing the tablecloth. The valet motioned toward the fireplace mantle and television, she said.
“I first noticed there was ketchup dripping down the wall and there was a shattered porcelain plate on the floor,” she told the committee. “The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general’s AP interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall.”
Hutchinson then grabbed a towel to assist and recalled the valet told her about Trump, “he’s really ticked off about this. I would stay clear of him for right now.”
At a prior hearing, the Jan. 6 committee played video snippets of Barr’s testimony. In that snippet, he said “I went over there and I told my secretary that I would probably be fired and told not to … not to go back to my office, so I said, ‘You might have to pack up for me.”
At the end of the hearing, House Jan. 6 committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney said some of the witnesses who have appeared before the committee have received messages from some of inner members of Trump’s circle. She read some of the texts, including one that said “he wants me to let you know he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal.”
“Most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” Cheney said in closing, noting the committee will be discussing how to proceed.
Hutchinson’s testimony came in the middle of a two-week recess, and unexpectedly called just days after the committee said there would not be any more hearings until July. Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said that Tuesday’s hearing was called because the information Hutchinson had is “quite urgent.”
“Ms. Hutchinson is justifiably proud of her service to the country as a special assistant to the president,” Hutchinson’s attorneys, Jody Hunt and William Jordan, said in a statement. “While she did not seek out the attention accompanying her testimony today, she believes that it was her duty and responsibility to provide the committee with her truthful and candid observations of the events surrounding January 6. Ms. Hutchinson believes that January 6 was a horrific day for the country, and it is vital to the future of our democracy that it not be repeated.”
The committee is expected to restart the hearings in July.
Current and former aides to Mr. Trump sent one another messages as the hearing took place, describing a series of disclosures that they conceded were potentially quite damaging, mostly politically but also, potentially, legally.
If Mr. Trump was indeed warned that people were armed and still encouraged them to walk to the Capitol, some advisers said privately, that could potentially bolster a charge against him related to incitement.
Others said it was exculpatory of Mr. Trump that, in his speech, he had urged protesters to march on the Capitol “peacefully.”
Within hours after Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony had concluded, a number of Trump advisers seized upon her account of Mr. Trump’s trying to grab the wheel of the S.U.V. he was being driven in as by far the most explosive new allegation against him — and the one that they most hoped to discredit.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Secret Service officials who requested anonymity to discuss the potential testimony said that both Robert Engel, the head of Mr. Trump’s protective detail, and the driver of the vehicle were prepared to state under oath that neither man was assaulted by the former president and that he did not reach for the wheel. The officials said the two men would not dispute the allegation that Mr. Trump wanted to go to the Capitol.
But several current and former Trump aides also expressed concern about the committee’s suggestion, at the tail end of the day’s hearing, that someone close to Mr. Trump has tried to tamper with or intimidate the committee’s witnesses by reminding them that Mr. Trump reads the panel’s transcripts. Such interference could be prosecuted criminally.
U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, who also imposed a $750,000 fine, said “a very significant sentence is necessary” and that she wanted to send an “unmistakable message” that these kinds of crimes would be punished. Prosecutors had asked the judge to give her 30 to 55 years in prison, while Maxwell’s defense sought a lenient sentence of just five years.
Maxwell, wearing a blue prison uniform and a white mask to conform with coronavirus rules, sat quietly before the sentencing, looking ahead as Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe recounted how Maxwell subjected girls to “horrifying nightmares” by taking them to Epstein.
“They were partners in crime together and they molested these kids together,” she said, calling Maxwell “a person who was indifferent to the suffering of other human beings.”
When she had a chance to speak, Maxwell said she empathized with the survivors and that it was her “greatest regret of my life that I ever met Jeffrey Epstein.” Maxwell called him “a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalized life,” echoing her defense attorneys’ assertions, in court filings calling for a lenient sentence, that Epstein was the true mastermind.
Maxwell, who denies abusing anyone, said she hoped that her conviction and her “unusual incarceration” bring some “measure of peace and finality.”
Several survivors described their sexual abuse, including Annie Farmer, whose voice cracked several times as she said “we will continue to live with the harm she caused us.”
Farmer said her sister and herself tried to go public with their stories about Epstein and Maxwell two decades ago, only to be shut down by the powerful couple through threats and influence with authorities.
Inside the crowded courtroom, three of Maxwell’s siblings sat in a row behind her. Most of the others in attendance were members of the media.
Epstein and Maxwell’s associations with some of the world’s most famous people were not a prominent part of the trial, but mentions of friends like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Britain’s Prince Andrew showed how the pair exploited their connections to impress their prey.
Over the past 17 years, scores of women have accused Epstein of abusing them. Many described Maxwell as acting as a madam who recruited them to give massages to Epstein.
Four testified that they were abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s mansions in Florida, New York, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands.
Three were identified in court only by their first names or pseudonyms to protect their privacy: Jane, a television actress; Kate, an ex-model from the U.K.; and Carolyn, now a mom recovering from drug addiction. The fourth was Farmer, the sole accuser to identify herself in court by her real name, after speaking out publicly.
They described how Maxwell charmed them with conversation and gifts and promises that Epstein could use his wealth and connections to help fulfill their dreams.
Then, they testified, she led them to give massages to Epstein that turned sexual and played it off as normal.
Carolyn testified that she was one of several underprivileged teens who lived near Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s and took up an offer to massage him in exchange for $100 bills in what prosecutors described as “a pyramid of abuse.”
Maxwell made all the arrangements, Carolyn told the jury, even though she knew the girl was only 14 at the time.
The allegations against Epstein first surfaced publicly in 2005. He pleaded guilty to sex charges in Florida and served 13 months in jail, much of it in a work-release program as part of a deal criticized as lenient. Afterward, he was required to register as a sex offender.
In the years that followed, many women sued Epstein over alleged abuse. One, Virginia Giuffre, claimed that Epstein and Maxwell had also pressured her into sexual trysts with other powerful men, including Prince Andrew. All of those men denied the allegations and Giuffre ultimately settled a lawsuit against Andrew out of court.
Federal prosecutors in New York revived the case against Epstein after stories by the Miami Herald in 2018 brought new attention to his crimes. He was arrested in 2019, but killed himself a month later.
Eleven months after his death, Maxwell was arrested at a New Hampshire estate. A U.S., British and French citizen, she has remained in a federal jail in New York City since then as her lawyers repeatedly criticize her treatment, saying she was even unjustly placed under suicide watch days before sentencing. Prosecutors say the claims about the jail are exaggerated and that Maxwell has been treated better than other prisoners.
Her lawyers also fought to have her conviction tossed on the grounds of juror misconduct. Days after the verdict, one juror gave media interviews in which he disclosed he had been sexually abused as a child — something he hadn’t told the court during jury selection. Maxwell’s lawyers said she deserved a new trial. A judge disagreed.
At least eight women submitted letters to the judge, describing the sexual abuse they said they endured for having met Maxwell and Epstein. Six of Maxwell’s seven living siblings wrote to plead for leniency. Maxwell’s fellow inmate also submitted a letter describing how Maxwell has helped to educate other inmates over the last two years.
Anne Holve and Philip Maxwell, her eldest siblings, wrote that her relationship with Epstein began soon after the 1991 death of their father, the British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell.
They said Robert Maxwell had subjected his daughter to “frequent rapid mood swings, huge rages and rejections.”
“This led her to becoming very vulnerable to abusive and powerful men who would be able to take advantage of her innate good nature,” they wrote.
Prosecutors called Maxwell’s shifting of blame to Epstein “absurd and offensive.”
Before her fate was announced, Maxwell looked down and scribbled on a notepad as Sarah Ransome — an accuser whose allegations weren’t included in this trial — spoke of the lasting harm to her life, gazing directly at Maxwell several times .
Ransome, who twice tried to die by suicide, finally drew a look from Maxwell when she said: “You broke me in unfathomable ways but you did not break my spirit.”
The fight: A slowly regenerating Russian army is making incremental gains in eastern Ukraine against valiant but underequipped Ukrainian forces. The United States and its allies are racing to deliver the enormous quantities of weaponry the Ukrainians urgently need if they are to hold the Russians at bay.
In a six-way race to face Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker this November, it will be State Sen. Darren Bailey that will win the Republican nomination, NBC News projects.
Bailey, who was elected to the state senate from Xenia, received significant downstate support and a coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump in the late stages of the primary cycle.
Bailey fended off a crowded field that included Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who was an early favorite in the campaign after using $50 million in donations from Illinois billionaire Ken Griffin to purchase a slew of televised advertisements.
Irvin also faced a withering barrage of attack ads from Pritzker himself and from the Democratic Governor’s Association in the late stages of the campaign.
Bailey also bested businessman Jesse Sullivan, whose outsider message was seen as a key as he racked up support late in the election.
Businessman Gary Rabine, former State Sen. Paul Schimpf and attorney Max Solomon all finished well off the pace in the race, according to projections.
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Now Bailey and his running mate will face Pritzker and Julianna Stratton in the November election. Pritzker will seek a second term in office, while Bailey will hope to unseat the man that he tangled with in courtrooms throughout the COVID pandemic, filing lawsuits over the governor’s health mitigations and policies.
Bailey has criticized the governor’s economic policies, pointing to the departure of several company headquarters in recent months as evidence that Pritzker has negatively impacted the number of jobs in Illinois.
The Democratic Governors’ Association has already run ads against Bailey, calling his policies “far-right” and out-of-step with the viewpoints of Illinois voters.
MADRID/HELSINKI, June 28 (Reuters) – NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join the Western alliance on Tuesday after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The breakthrough came after four hours of talks just before a NATO summit began in Madrid, averting an embarrassing impasse at the gathering of 30 leaders that aims to show resolve against Russia, now seen by the U.S.-led alliance as a direct security threat rather than a possible adversary.
It means Helsinki and Stockholm can proceed with their application to join the nuclear-armed alliance, cementing what is set to be the biggest shift in European security in decades, as the two, long-neutral Nordic countries seek NATO protection.
“Our foreign ministers signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will … support the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO,” Finnish President Niinisto said in a statement.
The steps for Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO will be agreed on in the next two days, Niinisto said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Turkey’s presidency confirmed the accord in separate statements, after talks between the NATO chief, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Niinisto.
“Key memorandum just reached between Sweden, Finland and Türkyie. Paves way for Swedish accession to NATO,” Andersson said in a Twitter post.
RESPONSE TO RUSSIA
The resolution of the deadlock solidifies the alliance’s response to Russia – particularly in the Baltic Sea, where Finnish and Swedish membership would give NATO military superiority.
In the wider Nordic region, Norway, Denmark and the three Baltic states are already NATO members. Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, helped overturn decades of Swedish opposition to joining NATO.
U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the deal.
Biden, in a Twitter post, called it a “crucial step towards a NATO invite to Finland and Sweden, which will strengthen our Alliance and bolster our collective security.”
Johnson called it “fantastic news” to start the summit.
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U.S. President Joe Biden boards Air Force One to depart for Spain from Munich International Airport in Munich, Germany, June 28 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Stoltenberg said NATO’s 30 leaders would now invite Finland, which shares a 1,300 km (810-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden to join NATO and that they would become official “invitees”. He told reporters: “The door is open – the joining of Finland and Sweden into NATO will take place.”
However, even with a formal invitation granted, NATO’s 30 allied parliaments must ratify the decision by leaders, a process that could take up to a year.
TERMS OF THE DEAL
Turkey’s main demands, which came as a surprise to NATO allies in late May, were for the Nordic countries to stop supporting Kurdish militant groups present on their territory, and to lift their bans on some sales of arms to Turkey.
Stoltenberg said the terms of the deal involved Sweden intensifying work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected militants and amending Swedish and Finnish law to toughen their approach to them.
Stoltenberg said Sweden and Finland would lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey.
Turkey has raised serious concerns that Sweden has been harbouring what it says are militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. Stockholm denies the accusation.
The Turkish presidency statement said the agreement reached on Tuesday meant, “Full cooperation with Turkey in the fight against the PKK and its affiliates.”
It also said Sweden and Finland were “demonstrating solidarity with Turkey in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
Biden, in public comments with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe of Spain, stressed the alliance’s unity, saying NATO was “as galvanized as I believe it’s ever been.”
A senior administration official said Washington had pursued a low key approach and insisted that Turkey had not linked its longstanding request for F-16 fighter jets to secure the deal.
Biden will meet Erdogan during the summit. Erdogan said before leaving for Madrid that he would push Biden on an F-16 fighter jet purchase.
He said he would discuss with Biden the issue of Ankara’s procurement of S-400 air defence systems from Russia – which led to U.S. sanctions – as well as modernization kits from Washington and other issues.
Primary voters dealt defeats Tuesday to heavily publicized political names, including Rudy Giuliani’s son in New York and a pro-Donald Trump election conspiracy theorist in Colorado.
Tina Peters, a Colorado election official under indictment over efforts to bolster Trump’s claims of voter fraud, headed for a third place finish in a Republican primary for Secretary of State.
In New York, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., won the GOP gubernatorial primary over Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York Mayor and Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani. Zeldin now faces a fall race against Gov. Kathy Hochul, who easily won the Democratic primary.
The states of Illinois, Oklahoma, and Utah also held primaries. In Illinois, two members of the U.S. House lost primaries to other incumbents who had been placed in the same newly drawn congressional districts.
Nebraska GOP state Sen. Flood wins ex-congressman’s seat
OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska state Sen. Mike Flood won a special election Tuesday to replace former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a fellow Republican who was sentenced to two years of probation earlier in the day for a conviction on charges that he lied to federal agents.
Flood beat Democratic state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks in the state’s Republican-leaning 1st District, which includes Lincoln and dozens of smaller, mostly conservative towns in eastern Nebraska.
Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, will serve the rest of what would have been Fortenberry’s ninth term. He’ll be a strong favorite to win a new term in November, when he faces Pansing Brooks again in the general election.
Andrew Giuliani loses GOP nomination for NY governor to Lee Zeldin
A big name in New York politics fell to defeat on Tuesday.
Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, lost the state’s gubernatorial primary to U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y.
Zeldin had questioned Giuliani’s lack of experience – he is only 36 years, and was running in his first political race – and his commitment to conservatism.
The congressman and former state legislator now takes on incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in the fall election.
Hochul will be favored in this heavily Democratic state.
During the Republican primary, Giuliani and Zeldin also argued about who was the most loyal to President Donald Trump.
A White House official during the Trump years, the younger Giuliani has been semi-famous his entire life.
Back in early 1994, as a 7-year-old, Andrew Giuliani drew national attention for waving, blowing kisses, and generally mugging for the camera as his father delivered his inaugural address as mayor.
– David Jackson
Pro-Trump election denier loses GOP nomination for Colorado Secretary of State
An indicted Donald Trump supporter who believes in voter fraud conspiracies has lost the Republican nomination for Colorado secretary of state, a position that would have enabled her to officiate elections.
Tina Peters, a suspended Mesa County clerk and recorder, lost to Pam Anderson, a former Jefferson County clerk and recorder who supported mail-in balloting and argued that Trump’s protests are eroding the public’s faith in elections.
Both the New York Times and NBC called the race for Anderson.
Anderson had accused Peters of spreading disinformation.
Peters is under indictment over allegations of copying election machine software in an unsuccessful effort to prove Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020. She has pleaded not guilty.
Anderson, the primary winner, now takes on incumbent Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat who has attacked “insider threats” to the security of elections.
Peters was battling for second place with Mike O’Donnell, an economist and naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Australia and now lives in Yuma County. He also questioned the outcome of the 2020 election.
Republicans who believe Trump’s false claims of voter fraud are promoting a number of candidates for election administration offices nationwide, particularly secretary of state jobs.
– David Jackson
Controversial, Trump-backed candidate Mary Miller defeats fellow incumbent Rodney Davis
Rep. Mary Miller, a controversial candidate backed by former President Donald Trump, won her Republican primary bid against fellow conservative Rep. Rodney Davis.
The Illinois Republicans faced off after Davis’ purple district was gerrymandered into a solidly red one.
Miller, a first-term lawmaker, attracted national media attention in recent days when she cheered the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade as a “victory for white life.” Her team quickly responded and said she meant to say “right to life.”
In 2021, she drew criticism when she invoked Adolf Hitler in a speech just days after being sworn-in.
– Candy Woodall
Ezell defeats US Rep. Palazzo in Mississippi GOP primary
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sheriff Mike Ezell has defeated six-term U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo in a Republican primary runoff in Mississippi.
It’s a rare defeat of a congressional incumbent in a Mississippi party primary. The state has a history of sending elected officials to Washington for decades to build seniority.
Ezell criticized Palazzo after a 2021 report by the Office of Congressional Ethics found “substantial reason to believe” Palazzo had abused his office by misspending campaign funds. A Palazzo spokesperson said the investigation was based on “false allegations” made by an opponent in the 2020 primary.
Ezell is a sheriff in one of Mississippi’s coastal counties, and he started campaigning for the 4th District seat more than a year ago. He called Palazzo a no-show for skipping debates before the seven-person Republican primary in early June.
Palazzo is a military veteran who unseated a Democratic congressman in 2010.
In November, Ezell will face Democrat Johnny L. DuPree and Libertarian candidate Alden Patrick Johnson.
– Associated Press
Casten defeats Newman in Illinois
A Democratic primary race – a rare contest between two incumbents – that has been fraught with drama and heartbreak has been decided in Illinois.
Rep. Sean Casten defeated Rep. Marie Newman, who has been the subject of an ethics investigation.
Redistricting had forced the two incumbent Democrats to run against each other, though the winner has stayed on the sidelines in recent weeks.
Casten stopped campaigning earlier this month when his 17-year-old daughter Gwen died.
– Candy Woodall
Lee wins GOP Senate primary in Utah
Sen. Mike Lee easily won the Republican primary Tuesday night, despite challenges from Becky Edwards and Ally Isom who criticized him for his support of former President Donald Trump.
The incumbent senator will face independent Evan McMullin in the fall.
McMullin has been convincing outnumbered Utah Democrats to back his campaign and unseat Lee.
– Candy Woodall
Republican runoff in Oklahoma’s special U.S. Senate race
There will be an Aug. 23 runoff for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe.
U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., had a big lead in the primary, but fell short of the 50% mark needed to win the nomination outright against a crowded primary field.
Mullin must now run against the second place finisher, former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon.
This was the night’s second Republican Senate primary in Oklahoma. Incumbent U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., easily won the other one.
– David Jackson
Polls close in Utah
Voting ended in Utah at 10 p.m. Tuesday in the state’s primary, where one of the key races is Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s re-election campaign.
He is being challenged by GOP candidates Becky Edwards and Ally Isom, who haven’t gained much traction in the state, according to polls.
Lee is favored to win and would face independent Evan McMullin in the fall.
– Candy Woodall
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert wins GOP re-nomination in Colorado
Ultra-conservative U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., easily won her congressional primary in the Rocky Mountain state, despite intense attacks by outside political groups.
Boebert has been particularly outspoken in her support of gun rights, her criticism of the Jan. 6 investigating commission, and her condemnation of President Joe Biden.
During a religious service this past weekend, Boebert said: “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution.”
Boebert defeated moderate Republican state legislator Don Coram, who attacked her for failing to pass any kind of specific legislation and refusing to work with Democrats.
– David Jackson
Kathy Hochul wins re-nomination as New York governor
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has easily won re-nomination in her primary against two under-funded opponents, NBC News and ABC News projected.
Hochul, a former lieutenant governor who ascended when Andrew Cuomo resigned, defeated New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi.
She now faces the winner of a Republican primary that includes U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin and Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and
– David Jackson
Flood of candidates to replace Rep. Rush
More than 20 candidates are vying for the chance to replace 15-term Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush, the only lawmaker who has ever beaten Barack Obama in a race. Obama challenged Rush in a 2000 U.S. House primary and lost.
The heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District was redrawn after the 2020 census and now stretches from Chicago’s South Side to Kankakee.
Among the field running to replace Rush is Jonathan Jackson, the son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Karin Norington-Reaves, a federal workforce trainer endorsed by Rush; Pat Dowell, a member of the Chicago City Council whose ward is in the district; and businessman Jonathan Swain.
– Associated Press
Polls closed in Colorado, New York
Polls have closed in Colorado and New York, where several candidates are competing in high-profile primary races Tuesday.
In Colorado, multiple candidates are running for office who have pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Tina Peters is a Trump-backed election denier who is seeking the GOP nomination for secretary of state, a position that would enable her to officiate elections.
In New York, the Republicans competing to face Gov. Kathy Hochul in November are in a close race. Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is squaring off against Lee Zeldin, who is considered an establishment Republican.
– Candy Woodall
Pritzker rolls over challenger in Illinois gubernatorial primary
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker easily defeated activist Beverly Miles, a Chicago nurse and military veteran, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
For much of the race the billionaire incumbent spent his attention on the Republican primary, where he and the Democratic Governor’s Association have spent millions attacking Aurora Mayor Richard Irving.
Pritzker has cast the November election as a fight against right-wing extremism, saying he is a “pro-choice, pro-voting rights, pro-civil rights” Democrat.
– Phillip M. Bailey
Stitt wins easily in Oklahoma gubernatorial primary
One of former President Donald Trump’s favorite governors cruised to victory in one of the many Republican primary races on Tuesday.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt was the projected winner in the race for the GOP nomination in his bid to seek reelection.
Since being elevated to the governor’s office in 2018, Stitt has been on the frontlines of many conservative causes. He has signed measures into law that allow residents to carry a firearm without a permit, restarted capitol punishment and banned all abortions beginning at fertilization.
In March, Trump, who endorsed Stitt in 2018, citing the incumbent governor as a “fearless defender” of gun rights.
– Phillip M. Bailey
Who’s running in the NY GOP gubernatorial primary?
The GOP gubernatorial contest for the right to challenge likely Democratic nominee – and incumbent governor – Kathy Hochul is coming down to two candidates.
GOP Congressman Lee Zeldin of Long Island leads the pack, with Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City mayor and Republican politician Rudy Giuliani, his most well-known challenger.
Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and businessman Harry Wilson round out the Republican primary slate.
– Sarah Taddeo, New York State Team
Billionaires battle in Illinois GOP gubernatorial primary
Whoever wins in the Republican primary for Illinois governor, a feature of the contest has been how three billionaires – including Democratic incumbent J.B. Pritzker – are spending big bucks to influence the outcome.
Pritzker, joined by national Democrats, poured roughly $35 million in attack ads against Republican Richard Irvin, the mayor of Aurora, signaling they would prefer to face his GOP rival, state Rep. Darren Bailey, in the fall.
Irvin, meanwhile, was helped by a $50 million contribution from billionaire hedge-fund manager Kenneth Griffin.
Not to be left out, Bailey had support from a billionaire too. He was helped by a $9 million donation by Richard Uihlein, a shipping company owner, to a political action committee attacking Irvin.
– Phillip M. Bailey
OK Sen. James Lankford wins one of two GOP Senate primaries in Sooner State
As expected, incumbent James Lankford of Oklahoma easily won re-nomination in one of his state’s two Republican primaries for the U.S. Senate.
Lankford turned back Tulsa pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who had attacked the senator for refusing to endorse Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Most political professionals are paying attention to Oklahoma’s other primary, a special election to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe.
More than a dozen candidates are involved in that contest. There will be a runoff if none of the candidates win more than 50% in tonight’s primary.
– David Jackson
Who is New York Gov. Kathy Hochul?
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul will aim to hold onto the role she took in August, when she replaced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo after he resigned following a swirl of sexual harassment allegations.
Hochul has painted herself as a steady, experienced hand in government, pointing to her ability to understand what everyday New Yorkers want and need, and vowing to bring transparency to Albany. In recent weeks, she championed her actions in the last days of the state Legislature’s session to pass stricter gun laws in the wake of a racially motivated shooting that left 10 Black people dead in a Buffalo grocery store.
Her primary challengers include Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, a vocal centrist who has accused Hochul of being corrupt and soft on crime; and Jumaane Williams, New York City’s Public Advocate who has carried the torch for the party’s progressive wing and championed tenant and housing rights, education and mental health support.
– Sarah Taddeo, New York State Team
Polls closed in Illinois, Oklahoma
Voting has ended in the primary battles for public office in Illinois and Oklahoma on Tuesday.
In Oklahoma, Republican Kevin Stitt, who was a political outsider when he won the governorship in 2018, is expected to cruise to victory. Stitt has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and has been an ardent crime-and-punishment conservative. He backs permitless carry of firearms and reinstating the death penalty.
Illinois’ main event is the GOP gubernatorial primary, where the winner will face Democratic incumbent J.B. Pritzker.
Darren Bailey, a state lawmaker who has resisted COVID-19 restrictions, is facing Richard Irving, a former prosecutor who was previously elected as the first Black mayor of Chicago’s largest suburb.
– Phillip M. Bailey
Colorado’s Boebert on the ballot
In Colorado, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, one of the most polarizing members of Congress, is trying to beat back a challenge from a more mainstream Republican in her primary Tuesday.
Boebert, a first-term firebrand, saw her GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional District in western Colorado become even more Republican after redistricting. She faces moderate state Rep. Don Coram, a rancher and hemp farmer, who slams what he calls Boebert’s extremism.
Coram argues that the incumbent’s fealty to Trump has meant neglect of her sprawling territory’s all-important agriculture issues as she seeks social and conservative media celebrity. Boebert has railed against the “Biden regime” and “socialist” Democrats. She also trumpets her gun-toting Second Amendment credentials and opposition to COVID-19 restrictions that briefly shuttered her “Shooters” restaurant.
Boebert criticizes Coram for working with legislative Democrats. Her opponent is betting voters alienated by Boebert’s provocations will choose someone more in the tradition of centrists that have played well in the area, including five-term Republican Rep. Scott Tipton, who lost to Boebert in an upset last cycle.
In Utah, the night’s headline race is for the U.S. Senate, with Republican Mike Lee trying to fend off two challengers in his bid for a third term.
Much like that race, several Republican primaries for U.S. House seats pit Trump-aligned populists against Republicans disillusioned with the direction he’s taken the party who’ve lightly criticized him.
In Utah’s four congressional races, first-term Congressman Blake Moore is facing two challengers and Chris Stewart, John Curtis and Burgess Owens each face one. At the state GOP’s April convention, party delegates, known for leaning further right than the party’s overall electorate, backed Moore and Curtis’ opponents, forcing the two to gather signatures to quality for the primary ballot.
The Republican primary winners will be favorites in the general elections in an overwhelmingly red state where none of the state’s congressional districts post-redistricting were rated as battlegrounds.
Tonight’s primaries come in the shadow of Roe vs. Wade and Jan. 6 testimony
Tonight’s primaries in New York, Illinois, Colorado, Utah and Oklahoma take place in the wake of momentous events that will affect politics for years to come.
Voters headed to the polls the same day that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave chilling testimony about former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. She said Trump knew that his supporters could get violent after they marched to the Capitol to protest his election loss to President Joe Biden.
After Trump attacked Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to help him overturn the election, Hutchinson told the Jan. 6 congressional investigating committee: “As an American, I was disgusted. It was un-patriotic. It was un-American. We were watching the Capitol defaced based on a lie.”
Investigations into Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 could affect elections in the fall and beyond.
This is also the first primary day since the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to strike down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, basically allowing states to ban abortions and making the issue a prime political topic.
Democrats have vowed to make re-establishing abortion rights a major issue in future elections.
– David Jackson
Former Congressman Fortenberry gets two years of probation as Nebraskans vote to replace him
Nebraskans in the 1st District headed to the polls for a special election to replace a vacancy left open by long-time Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, who resigned in March following conviction in an investigation that he lied to the FBI over an illegal, foreign donation.
In the Republican-leaning 1st Congressional District race to replace Fortenberry, Republican State Sen. Mike Flood is expected to win Tuesday’s special election over Democrat State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks. Regardless of who wins Tuesday, both candidates also will face each other in November’s general election for a full term starting in January.
Flood is the former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature and has been endorsed by Ricketts and former GOP Gov. Dave Heineman.
Fortenberry’s resignation went into effect on June 1. The new representative will be in office through January 2023.
Fortenberry received a $30,000 contribution in a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser from Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury. Fortenberry didn’t disclose the contribution, and when asked in two separate interviews about the contribution, said he had no knowledge.
A Los Angeles federal judge sentenced him on Tuesday morning to two years probation, 320 hours community service and a fine of $25,000, but he faced a maximum fifteen years in prison.
— Katherine Swartz
Indicted Colorado secretary of state candidate pushes false election fraud claims
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters continues to outraise her opponents in Colorado’s GOP secretary of state primary despite being indicted on seven felony charges related to election fraud, called on by her own party to suspend her campaign and barred by a judge from overseeing her county’s elections this year.
Peters’ main opponent in Tuesday’s primary is moderate Republican Pam Anderson, a longtime election official and former Jefferson County clerk who rejects former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election that Peters embraces. Anderson has raised nearly $107,000 since October, compared with $166,000 Peters raised since entering the race in February, according to financial disclosure reports from May 31.
This primary represents the latest chapter of a new fracturing within the GOP, a party torn between adherence to Trump-perpetuated claims of widespread voter fraud and those who reject those baseless claims. What’s left is a tug-of-war between pro-Trump, far-right loyalists candidates and more traditional Republicans for GOP nominations in the primaries.
— Allison Novelo, Julia Mueller and Zoya Mirza, Medill News Service
Trump’s influence is being tested again in Illinois’ Republican primary
Five-term incumbent Rep. Rodney Davis is facing off against freshman Rep. Mary Miller in a race that has pitted the two incumbents against each other after redistricting. Trump has endorsed Miller and held a rally last Saturday to build support for her in advance of tonight’s election.
At that same rally, Miller called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “victory for white life.” Her campaign team claims she misspoke, meaning to say “right to life.” Davis criticized Miller, saying in a statement, she “has demonstrated she is not fit for public office.”
The race will be another test of Trump’s political sway against establishment Republicans who have held office before Trump’s rise to power.
Despite not being endorsed by Trump, Davis’ campaign site says he “was proud to work with President Trump.” He served as a co-chairman of Trump’s re-election campaign.
In Illinois primary, two Democratic incumbents go head to head
Reps. Marie Newman and Sean Casten – both elected in 2018 – are competing for the same congressional seat in the 6th district Democratic primary.
It’s the only race in Illinois where two incumbent Democrats are running against each other, and the district is expected to be one of the closest races in the general election.
Newman represented the 3rd District, but her residence was moved into the 4th after redistricting. Instead of running in the 4th – a heavily Hispanic district represented by Democrat Jesús “Chuy” García – Newman instead decided to run in the 6th District, where 41% of her constituents now live.
Casten represents the 6th District, but only 23% of his constituents now live within its borders.
While the two are alike on most Democratic issues, Newman is more progressive and supports policies like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Casten has voted with Pres. Joe Biden 97% of the time.
– Katherine Swartz
Who is Marie Newman:Illinois congresswoman moved districts and now faces fellow Democratic congressman
Like a Broadway musical – or an absurdist play – the state of New York is conducting primary elections in two acts this year: gubernatorial and certain state elections on Tuesday, congressional and other legislative races in late August.
Party disputes over redistricting led to the two-part primary setup that could reduce turnout, increase friction between the parties and confuse large numbers of voters, political analysts said.
“It’s a total mess,” said Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. “It was an embarrassment to the state. … It doesn’t serve the interests of the voters.”
Voters in the know will decide some state elections Tuesday, including State Assembly races and spirited Democratic and Republican primaries for the governor’s office.
An image of former President Donald Trump talking to his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is displayed as Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Meadows, testifies about events around the Capitol insurrection to the House Jan. 6 select committee.
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An image of former President Donald Trump talking to his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is displayed as Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Meadows, testifies about events around the Capitol insurrection to the House Jan. 6 select committee.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Explosive firsthand testimony was delivered Tuesday before the Jan. 6 committee from a former Trump White House aide about the former president’s conduct on the day of the insurrection and those leading up to it.
Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a principal aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified under oath about a volatile and angry president. Trump, she said, was prone to throwing dishes and once even grabbed the wheel of the presidential limousine because that’s how badly he wanted to go to the Capitol with the rioters.
Trump and Meadows, Hutchinson said, knew of the potential for violence before Jan. 6; the names of violent white supremacist groups who showed up at the Capitol that day were being bandied about in the White House when the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was around; Trump knew people who showed up at his speech on Jan. 6 had weapons and was furious the many were being stopped by magnetometers; and when the insurrection was taking place, Meadows seemed to have little reaction while Trump didn’t care.
“He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,” Meadows said, per Hutchinson, in a conversation with White House lawyer Pat Cippolone, who was urging Meadows to push Trump to tamp down the violence.
Cipollone responded: “Mark, something needs to be done, or the blood is going to be on your effing hands.”
There were lots of other eyebrow-raising accounts just like that one in the hearing that was announced only the day before. The committee, in announcing the hearing, said only that there was new information that had come to light.
Here are five takeaways from the hearing:
1. We’ve heard about Trump’s temper throughout his life, but this was the most vivid detailing of it during his tenure as president.
Trump said at one point during the 2016 presidential campaign that he could be so presidential, everyone would be “bored.”
Hutchinson painted a picture of a volatile man who was far from what Americans have long expected of how their presidents should comport themselves. Here’s some of what she recounted:
— She said that she was told Trump grabbed the steering wheel of the presidential limousine and put his hands on the “clavicles” of the Secret Service agent driving the car, and those involved didn’t dispute the account.
Trump had grown “irate” when he heard the Secret Service said it couldn’t secure the area around the Capitol, and Trump had to be taken back to the White House.
“I’m the effing president,” Trump thundered. “Take me up to the Capitol now.”
The agent refused.
— Trump had a penchant for throwing dishes. Hutchinson recalled going into the presidential dining room on Dec. 1, 2020, after Bill Barr had said in an interview that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election.
Hutchinson found ketchup dripping from the wall and a shattered plate on the ground. The president was “extremely angry” with Barr’s interview. Trump, Hutchinson said, had thrown his lunch against the wall. Hutchinson grabbed a towel and helped staff clean the wall.
Hutchinson said there were “several times” throughout her tenure with Meadows, when Trump threw dishes and flipped the tablecloth in the dining room so contents of the table broke or went everywhere.
2. The committee is methodically trying to establish intent and premeditation.
It’s a difficult threshold to reach, but the committee is deliberately and intentionally laying out the building blocks for intent and premeditation. At Tuesday’s hearing, it showed:
— Meadows was told of intelligence ahead of Jan. 6 that the day could get very violent. He shared that with Trump. But Meadows rarely had any reaction or seemed surprised at all and was equally nonplussed by the violence on the day of the insurrection, according to Hutchinson.
— Meadows also participated, by phone — though he wanted to go in person — for a briefing with Roger Stone and retired Gen. Michael Flynn in the “War Room” they had set up on Jan. 5 in the Willard Hotel.
Stone and Flynn were intimately involved in the “Stop the Steal” movement. There are pictures of Stone with white supremacist militia functioning as his bodyguards on Jan. 6.
Flynn has been linked to the QAnon conspiracy and pleaded the Fifth, the right not to incriminate yourself, on multiple occasions before the Jan. 6 committee, including when asked simply if he believed in the peaceful transfer of power in the United States.
— Trump knew of violent people in the crowd, knew they were armed, didn’t want their weapons taken away and didn’t feel threatened.
“I don’t care that they effing have weapons,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson. “They’re not here to hurt me. Let them in, take the mags away.” Trump noted they could march to the Capitol afterward.
Instead, he was more concerned that the crowd wouldn’t look as big as he wanted it to in pictures and was firing them up, encouraging them to go to the Capitol after his speech.
— Trump resisted calls to tamp down the violence, and Hutchinson quotes Meadows saying Trump thought Vice President Mike Pence deserved to be hanged.
“He doesn’t want to do anything,” Meadows said of Trump, per Hutchinson. “These are his people.”
At another point, Hutchinson said she overheard Meadows telling Cipollone, who was urgently telling Meadows about the violence and that they even are chanting to hang Pence, “You heard him, Pat. He thinks he deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”
There’s nothing explicit so far of people testifying that Trump said he wanted supporters to violently storm the Capitol, but there are lots of bread crumbs.
3. White House lawyer was worried about legal exposure for Trump and the White House.
With Trump pushing hard to be allowed to go to the Capitol with his supporters, as many White House aides testified, Cippolone was concerned that he and others at the White House could be charged with crimes if Trump did go.
His message to Hutchinson and Meadows when it came to Trump wanting to go to the Capitol: make sure it doesn’t happen.
“We are going to get charged with every crime imaginable if that happens,” Cippolone said, per Hutchinson.
She noted that Cippolone said it would look like Trump was inciting a riot and there could be charges related to obstruction of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States because of blocking the counting of electoral votes.
The committee also revealed on Tuesday that the potential crimes committed weren’t just in the past. Toward the end of the hearing, Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., warned of potential witness tampering.
4. Add Meadows and Giuliani to the list of those who sought pardons.
Speaking of legal exposure, Hutchinson testified Tuesday that her boss, Meadows, and Giuliani sought pardons but didn’t get them.
In the last hearing, there were about half a dozen Republican members of Congress who were also named as seeking pardons. Now, again, like those Republican members of Congress, it’s not explicitly known why they were asking for pardons – if they believed they did anything illegal or if they simply thought a Democratic administration would target them.
But Meadows did speak with Stone and Flynn – as did Trump – and Giuliani was identified Tuesday as someone mentioning the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys before Jan. 6 in the corridors of the West Wing.
A lot of people were worried about legal exposure, but the question continues to be what legally will come of these hearings.
The Jan. 6 committee is not a law enforcement body, and it’s not clear what’s happening at the Justice Department and FBI from an investigative standpoint as it relates to the White House and Jan. 6.
5. Republicans largely have their fingers in their ears about these hearings.
Hutchinson is a Republican. In fact, almost everyone testifying during these hearings have been Republicans, from White House staff and lawyers to campaign aides and state elections officials.
These were people working for Trump’s White House, trying to get him reelected or others who voted for him.
It’s hard to know what will move the needle of politics nowadays with such entrenched partisanship or if this will potentially damage Trump in the medium term because of all the drama attached to him.
But Republican viewers right now are not tuning into the primary source evidence.
A CBS/YouGov poll conducted last week found that while almost seven in 10 Democrats are following the hearings some or a lot, just a quarter of Republicans are and less than half of independents.
Overall, half of respondents said they think Trump was trying to stay in office through illegal means. More than eight in 10 Democrats and 51% of independents thought so, but just 13% of Republicans did.
And while 80% of Democrats think the Jan. 6 committee should recommend Trump be charged with crimes, 44% of independents feel the same and just 8% of Republicans do.
It’s hard to hear a tree fall in a forest when you’re thousands of miles away.
MADRID (AP) — Turkey agreed Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, ending an impasse that had clouded a leaders’ summit opening in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades, triggered by the war in Ukraine.
After urgent top-level talks with leaders of the three countries, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.” He called it “a historic decision.”
Among its many shattering consequences, President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held nonaligned status and apply to join NATO as protection against an increasingly aggressive and unpredictable Russia — which shares a long border with Finland. Under NATO treaties, an attack on any member would be considered an attack against all and trigger a military response by the entire alliance.
NATO operates by consensus, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened to block the Nordic pair, insisting they change their stance on Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists.
After weeks of diplomacy and hours of talks on Tuesday, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said the three leaders had signed a joint agreement to break the logjam.
Turkey said it had “got what it wanted” including “full cooperation … in the fight against” the rebel groups.
Stoltenberg said leaders of the 30-nation alliance will issue a formal invitation to the two countries to join on Wednesday. The decision has to be ratified by all individual nations, but he said he was “absolutely confident” Finland and Sweden would become members, something that could happen within months.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said the agreement was “good for Finland and Sweden. And it’s good for NATO.”
She said completing the process of membership should be done “the sooner the better.”
“But there are 30 parliaments that need to approve this and you never know,” Andersson told the Associated Press.
Turkey hailed Tuesday’s agreement as a triumph, saying the Nordic nations had agreed to crack down on groups that Ankara deems national security threats, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its Syrian extension. It said they also agreed “not to impose embargo restrictions in the field of defense industry” on Turkey and to take “concrete steps on the extradition of terrorist criminals.”
Turkey has demanded that Finland and Sweden extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed after Turkey’s 2019 military incursion into northeast Syria.
Turkey, in turn, agreed “to support at the 2022 Madrid Summit the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO.”
Details of exactly what was agreed were unclear. Amineh Kakabaveh, an independent Swedish lawmaker of Kurdish origin whose support the government depends on for a majority in Parliament, said it was “worrisome that Sweden isn’t revealing what promises it has given Erdogan.”
Andersson dismissed suggestions Sweden and Finland had conceded too much.
Asked if the Swedish public will see the agreement as a concession on issues like extraditions of Kurdish militants regarded by Ankara as terrorists, Andersson said “they will see that this is good for the security of Sweden.”
U.S. President Joe Biden congratulated the three nations on taking a “crucial step.”
Amid speculation about a U.S. role in ending the deadlock, a senior administration official said Washington did not offer any concessions to Turkey to coax it to accept a deal. But the official said the U.S. played a crucial role in helping bring the two parties closer together, and Biden spoke with Erdogan Tuesday morning at the behest of Sweden and Finland to help encourage the talks.
The agreement came at the opening of a crucial summit, dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that will set the course of the alliance for the coming years. The summit was kicking off with a leaders’ dinner hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI at the 18th-century Royal Palace of Madrid.
Top of the agenda in meetings Wednesday and Thursday is strengthening defenses against Russia, and supporting Ukraine.
Moscow’s invasion on Feb. 24 shook European security and brought shelling of cities and bloody ground battles back to the continent. NATO, which had begun to turn its focus to terrorism and other non-state threats, has had to confront an adversarial Russia once again.
Biden said NATO was “as united and galvanized as I think we have ever been.”
A Russian missile strike Monday on a shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was a grim reminder of the war’s horrors. Some saw the timing, as Group of Seven leaders met in Germany and just ahead of the NATO gathering, as a message from Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is due to address NATO leaders by video on Wednesday, called the strike on the mall a “terrorist” act.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko traveled to Madrid to urge the alliance to provide his country with “whatever it takes” to stop the war.
“Wake up, guys. This is happening now. You are going to be next, this is going to be knocking on your door just in the blink of an eye,” Klitschko told reporters at the summit venue.
Stoltenberg said the meeting would chart a blueprint for the alliance “in a more dangerous and unpredictable world” — and that meant “we have to invest more in our defense,” Stoltenberg said. Just nine of NATO’s 30 members meet the organization’s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense. Spain, which is hosting the summit, spends just half that.
Stoltenberg said Monday that NATO allies will agree at the summit to increase the strength of the alliance’s rapid reaction force nearly eightfold, from 40,000 to 300,000 troops. The troops will be based in their home nations, but dedicated to specific countries on NATO’s eastern flank, where the alliance plans to build up stocks of equipment and ammunition.
Beneath the surface, there are tensions within NATO over how the war will end and what, if any, concessions Ukraine should make to end the fighting.
There are also differences on how hard a line to take on China in NATO’s new Strategic Concept — its once-a-decade set of priorities and goals. The last document, published in 2010, didn’t mention China at all.
The new concept is expected to set out NATO’s approach on issues from cybersecurity to climate change — and the growing economic and military reach of China, and the rising importance and power of the Indo-Pacific region. For the first time, the leaders of Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand are attending the summit as guests.
Some European members are wary of the tough U.S. line on Beijing and don’t want China cast as an opponent.
In the Strategic Concept, NATO is set to declare Russia its number one threat.
Russia’s state space agency, Roscosmos marked the summit’s opening by releasing satellite images and coordinates of the Madrid conference hall where it is being held, along with those of the White House, the Pentagon and the government headquarters in London, Paris and Berlin.
The agency said NATO was set to declare Russia an enemy at the summit, adding that it was publishing precise coordinates “just in case.”
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Associated Press Writers Aritz Parra, Ciaran Giles, Sylvie Corbet and Zeke Miller in Madrid, Karl Ritter in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed.
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