Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary is too close to call between David McCormick, left, and Mehmet Oz.
Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
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Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary is too close to call between David McCormick, left, and Mehmet Oz.
Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Five states held primary elections Tuesday.
They once again tested former President Donald Trump’s influence on the Republican side — with mixed results; President Biden looks to have suffered a loss with one of his endorsements; a key U.S. Senate race is too close to call; and a controversial congressman lost his bid for reelection.
The results are in — well, most of them. Here’s some of what they tell us:
1. Waiting on Pennsylvania
The headliner state was Pennsylvania, and especially the key Senate race there. In the GOP primary, Mehmet Oz — that’s celebrity TV doctor Dr. Oz — was pitted against David McCormick, a former hedge fund head who spent millions of his own money in the race, and conservative commentator Kathy Barnette.
A late surge by Barnette may have held Oz back. Oz got Trump’s endorsement, but led by just over 2,000 votes over McCormick, as of noon ET Wednesday. Barnette ran as more MAGA than Trump. Trump’s pick of Oz was controversial, as many in his base don’t see him as truly conservative.
An automatic recount is triggered in Pennsylvania when the results are within 0.5 percentage points, which this is, meaning results won’t likely be immediately known. That would be bad news for Republicans, as a recount would delay the start of the general election in this Senate race, which Democrats see as their top pickup opportunity as they try to hold on to control of the chamber.
Trump, who has repeatedly pushed baseless claims about election fraud, reportedly posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Oz “should declare victory. It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find.’ ”
The Democratic nominee, as expected, is Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who won his primary in a landslide — despite Fetterman suffering a stroke days earlier and having a pacemaker implanted on Primary Day. This race promises to be dramatic and expensive, perhaps the most expensive in the country.
2. Trump’s endorsements were a mixed bag
Trump may have gotten a big win a couple weeks ago in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio, but this week was a little different.
As noted, Oz struggled to the finish though may pull it off, but this endorsement only came after Trump had backed another candidate for this Pennsylvania seat who dropped out because of domestic abuse allegations.
His pick for governor, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, won the nomination. He’s a controversial figure. He is pushing Trump’s election lies and was at Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021, but says he left before the violent insurrection took place.
In North Carolina, Trump’s pick for that key Senate race, Rep. Ted Budd, won handily. Trump had to intervene early and often in that race, as Budd faced a former governor and congressman — and even Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, entertained running for this seat early on.
Trump’s influence carried less weight, however, down the ballot in North Carolina, as the controversial freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn was defeated.
3. Cawthorn losing shows Republicans do have a line — don’t cross them.
Cawthorn landed in multiple scandals since coming to Washington, D.C. But he’s far from the first controversial figure on the right. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Lauren Boebert. Paul Gosar. Matt Gaetz. And on. They and others have all said and done controversial things with fiery rhetoric and jaw-dropping comments. They’ve been pushed back on at times, like when Greene and Gosar spoke at an event held by a white nationalist. But they’re still members of Congress, for now.
What Cawthorn did was different. Among other scandals — like twice trying to bring a gun through airport security — he crossed his own GOP colleagues. He accused them of participating in cocaine and sex parties — and that was apparently a step too far.
Still, Cawthorn came pretty close — he lost by less than 2 percentage points, or about 1,300 votes. That shows the power of the incumbency, even for a scandal-tarred freshman.
4. Biden’s influence might be limited
If the results in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District race are any indication, President Biden’s influence over voters in his own party might not go that far.
Biden got a win two weeks ago in a congressional race in Ohio, when Rep. Shontel Brown defeated former state Sen. Nina Turner in an establishment-versus-progressive matchup. But Brown already appeared on a glide path to reelection.
And this week, longtime Oregon Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader looks like he’s headed for defeat in this newly drawn district. He was trailing attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner by more than 20 points, as of noon ET, though only 53% of the estimated vote was in because of a printing error in one county.
Schrader is a moderate whom progressives targeted. The race split prominent members of the Democratic Party, both locally and nationally — and it could show the winds of change in the party, whose leader is unpopular nationally.
Also in Oregon, history is likely going to be made in the governor’s office. Former state House Speaker Tina Kotek sailed to the Democratic nomination in this left-leaning state. If Kotek wins the governorship, she would become the first openly lesbian governor elected in the country.
Nearly 2,500 global leaders from business, politics and civil society are expected to convene this week in Switzerland’s luxury Alpine ski resort of Davos.
On the agenda will be issues including Covid-19, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the climate crisis.
But critics argue that the annual meeting fails to address rising economic inequality and tax avoidance, while exclusive side events hosted by big corporations can give the impression of a week of networking and partying.
The World Economic Forum has also been the subject of unfounded conspiracy theories which it is trying to address head on.
“We, like many other organizations have been the target of misinformation campaigns. And that is something that we’re very proactively trying to work towards combating,” said Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the World Economic Forum.
For many of the local residents in Europe’s highest town, however, the return of WEF’s first in-person forum is a welcome sight.
It’s estimated that the WEF meeting brings in between 50 million euros ($59 million) and 60 million euros to the local economy.
To see more from Davos as it prepares for the WEF’s annual meeting watch the video.
Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have left Ukraine temporarily, according to a church spokesman, as the international political community remains at an impasse over Ukraine’s future.
“The decision is made out of an abundance of caution, as some government embassies in Ukraine are preparing to move certain personnel and their family members,” Sam Penrod said.
Nations, companies and other organizations are watching closely as Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border during debate over whether Ukraine might join NATO and other issues. U.S. President Joe Biden has directed the Pentagon to put about 8,500 U.S.-based troops on heightened alert for potential deployment to Europe to reassure allies amid rising fears of a possible Russian military move on Ukraine, reported The Associated Press.
The church reassigned full-time missionaries in the Ukraine Dnipro and Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova missions to missions in other countries. Some were moved to Germany, the Deseret News has learned.
“Many of these missionaries are being reassigned to missions in Europe,” Penrod said, “and a few missionaries who are approaching their planned release date will complete their missionary service and return home. Missionaries who have recently been called to Ukraine will receive a temporary assignment elsewhere. Some missionaries will serve in Moldova, which is away from any potential conflict areas.
“We pray for a peaceful resolution to the tensions in Ukraine and look forward to when the missionaries may return.”
The church occasionally removes missionaries or entire missions due to war, civil unrest, pandemic or other security or health reasons.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Sunday fired what appeared to be the most powerful missile it has tested since President Joe Biden took office, as it revives its old playbook in brinkmanship to wrest concessions from Washington and neighbors amid a prolonged stalemate in diplomacy.
The Japanese and South Korean militaries said the missile was launched on a lofted trajectory, apparently to avoid the territorial spaces of neighbors, and reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) and traveled 800 kilometers (497 miles) before landing in the sea.
The flight details suggest the North tested its longest-range ballistic missile since 2017, when it twice flew intermediate-range ballistic missiles over Japan and, separately, three intercontinental ballistic missiles that demonstrated the potential to reach deep into the American homeland.
Sunday’s test was North Korea’s seventh round of launches this month. The unusually fast pace of tests indicates its intent to pressure the Biden administration over long-stalled nuclear negotiations as pandemic-related difficulties put further stress on an economy broken by decades of mismanagement and crippling U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called an emergency National Security Council meeting where he described the test as a possible “mid-range ballistic missile launch” that brought North Korea to the brink of breaking its 2018 self-imposed moratorium on the testing of nuclear devices and longer-range missiles.
Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi also told reporters that the missile was the longest-range the North has tested since its Hwasong-15 ICBM in November 2017.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chaired a ruling party meeting on Jan. 20, where senior party members made a veiled threat to lift the moratorium, citing what they perceived as U.S. hostility and threats.
The latest launch suggests Kim’s moratorium is already broken, said Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert and honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
In his strongest comments toward the North in years, Moon said the situation around the Korean Peninsula is beginning to resemble 2017, when North Korea’s provocative run in nuclear and long-range missile testing resulted in an exchange of war threats between Kim and Trump.
Moon said the North’s latest moves violated U.N. Security Council resolutions and were a “challenge toward the international community’s efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, stabilize peace and find a diplomatic solution” to the nuclear standoff.
The North “should stop its actions that create tensions and pressure and respond to the dialogue offers by the international community including South Korea and the United States,” Moon said, according to his office.
Moon had ambitiously pushed for inter-Korean engagement and held three summits with Kim in 2018 while also lobbying to set up Kim’s first summit with Trump in 2018, where they issued vague aspirations for a nuclear-free peninsula.
But the diplomacy derailed after the collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting in 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korea’s demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Sunday’s missile flew for around 30 minutes and landed in waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. There were no immediate reports of damage to boats or aircraft.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the United States condemned North Korea’s testing activity and called on Pyongyang to refrain from further destabilizing acts. It said the latest launch did not “pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies.”
Takehiro Funakoshi, director-general for Asian and Oceanian Affairs at Japan’s Foreign Ministry, discussed the launch in separate phone calls with Sung Kim, Biden’s special envoy for North Korea, and Noh Kyu-duk, South Korea’s nuclear envoy. The officials shared an understanding that Sunday’s missile was of enhanced destructive power and reaffirmed trilateral cooperation in the face of the North Korean threat, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Experts say the North could halt its testing spree after the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics next week out of respect for China, its major ally and economic lifeline. But there’s also expectation that it could significantly up the ante in weapons demonstrations once the Olympics end in February to grab the attention of the Biden administration, which has been focusing more on confronting China and Russia over its conflict with Ukraine.
“North Korea is launching a frenzy of missiles before the start of the Beijing Olympics, mostly as military modernization efforts. Pyongyang also wants to boost national pride as it gears up to celebrate political anniversaries in the context of economic struggles,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“It wants to remind Washington and Seoul that trying to topple it would be too costly. By threatening stability in Asia while global resources are stretched thin elsewhere, Pyongyang is demanding the world compensate it to act like a ‘responsible nuclear power,’” Easley added.
North Korea has justified its testing activity as an exercise of its rights to self-defense and threatened stronger action after the Biden administration imposed fresh sanctions following two tests of a purported hypersonic missile earlier this month.
While desperate for outside relief, Kim has showed no willingness to surrender the nuclear weapons and missiles he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. Analysts say Kim’s pressure campaign is aimed at forcing Washington to accept the North as a nuclear power and convert their nuclear disarmament-for-aid diplomacy into negotiations for mutual arms-reduction.
Kim last year announced a new five-year plan for developing weapons and issued an ambitious wish list that included hypersonic weapons, spy satellites, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched nuclear missiles.
State media said Friday that Kim visited an unspecified munitions factory producing a “major weapons system,” and that the workers pledged loyalty to their leader who “smashes with his bold pluck the challenges of U.S. imperialists and their vassal forces.”
Nearly 3,000 firefighters and first responders have flooded the Sierra foothills of Mariposa County battling the explosive Oak fire, but it’s the guys in camouflage fatigues and surplus war vehicles that have most alarmed some evacuees and monitors of extremist groups.
As fire crews made headway Tuesday against a blaze that has roared through 18,000 acres, destroyed 25 homes and forced thousands to flee their homes, the presence of a self-described militia whose members handed out food and offered help to evacuees has raised concerns among some.
Calling itself the Echo Company of the California State Militia’s 2nd Regiment, the group had set up a field kitchen off Highway 140 recently and told the Merced Sun-Star it was offering food, water and a place to stay for those in need. Online, the group posts videos of members training with rifles, shields and other equipment, along with the group’s tagline: “We who dare.”
The Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office announced on Facebook on Sunday that it had been “made aware” of the presence of a local militia in the area. “We appreciate their efforts and any of the efforts of other private groups or entities helping our community,” the statement read.
But those who monitor extremist groups questioned whether their actions were truly altruistic.
Self-described militia groups have often inserted themselves into natural disaster zones, they said. Sometimes the groups claim to provide help and supplies, while actually promoting right-wing extremist ideologies, anti-government sentiment and conspiracy theories.
“It puts these groups in a positive light and extends to them a type of de-facto authority that they really don’t have under the law, which poses significant issues,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. “When you have a system that allows unregulated extremists to cosplay at times of disaster, you get, well, unqualified extremists cosplaying at times of disaster.”
The Sheriff’s Office had not requested the militia’s presence and said members were acting on “their own courteous accord.”
An increase in catastrophic wildfires has reduced California tree cover by 6.7% since 1985, and researchers fear the lost trees will never grow back.
“The public should be aware that the militia has not been activated or requested to act for any purpose by the Sheriff’s Office or any agency working the Oak fire,” the agency said on Facebook. “We are not unsupportive of groups helping those affected by the Oak fire, however, it is important that we inform the community of resources available to them by the incident and Mariposa County.”
The group’s presence came as firefighters appeared to make significant gains, even after the fire had destroyed 41 structures and kept thousands from their homes.
The northeast side of the fire was continuing to push against steep terrain and was at risk of bumping around the 2018 Ferguson fire burn scar, which could then ignite new brush and forest and make the fire harder to control, said Escondido Fire Department public information officer Dominic Polito, who was working with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on the blaze.
“If it runs up around the Ferguson scar, then we’re off to the races,” he said. “If not, then we’re looking very good.”
By Tuesday, the fire reached 26% containment, according to Cal Fire. Several residents were allowed to return to their homes by Friday evening as evacuation orders for some areas were reduced to fire advisements.
Still, about 1,440 buildings remained threatened as the fire continued to press on the eastern boundary, and firefighters continued to fight through steep terrain.
As the sun rose over the Sierra Nevada foothills, it appeared burnt orange through hazy skies in Mariposa County.
“The terrain is very slippery,” said Fresno Fire Capt. Chris Garcia. “Even putting firefighters up there is very hazardous. What can happen when walking is a dislodged rock can hit another firefighter, and we’re currently hitting a lot of snags, which is what we call a burnt out tree that ends up falling.”
Those residents that had been forced to flee were still reeling from the blur of packing up what they could and leaving their homes in uncertainty.
“I had never seen [smoke] that close before,” said Richard Perez, a 40-year resident of Mariposa County.
He and his wife packed their belongings and stuffed them into two cars, including their dogs and chickens.
“That’s my dream home, you know,” he said, “I worked my whole life to finally get a place.”
They ushered their three German shepherds into one car, and 11 of their chickens in the other. After one night at a local hotel, they stayed at the American Red Cross shelter at Mariposa Elementary along with about 40 other evacuees.
“I’ve been there for 20 years, and to lose everything,” he said, his voice trailing off. “It’s just material stuff, but it’s home.”
It’s residents like Perez that the uniformed militia group said it was looking to help.
Daniel Latner, a member of the group, told the Mercury News that around 20 members arrived with large military-surplus vehicles to help feed residents. Members, he said, were not armed.
Yet some residents found their presence unsettling.
“The last thing I’m going to do is take a free tri-tip sandwich from a right-wing extremist group,” a woman, who declined to be identified citing fear of provoking the group, told the Mercury News.
The group in Mariposa County had once been affiliated with a larger militia with a similar name, but the larger militia cut ties with Echo Company because of an incident in 2020, it said, when they inserted armed members between Black Lives Matter supporters and pro-police groups in a protest in Atwater.
In a 2020 statement, the larger group wrote online that it disavowed Echo Company because of “potential legal liability in light of the continued militant activities of other units,” and called the actions “inciteful.”
The Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
The presence of militia in natural disaster zones can seem well-intentioned, but can in fact be harmful because members are taking on actions that can interfere with trained government agencies that are coordinating a response, Levin said.
Many extremists groups are also known to use similar incidents to gain media attention and recruit new members.
Militia groups have also gained newfound scrutiny after the involvement of similar groups in the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. Members of groups including the Oath Keepers — which years earlier had appeared at hurricane zones and conducted trainings for local residents to prepare for natural disasters — have been indicted for their alleged role in the attack.
Levin said he is also concerned that, even if the group is providing assistance to residents, law enforcement’s subtle approval raises questions about the public’s interaction with them.
“If it turns out there’s extremists within those ranks, that’s a critical juncture where people are at their most vulnerable,” he said. “Vulnerable people at vulnerable times require a qualified response, and they don’t need to be exposed to the possibility of extremism.”
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