Tag: Josh Hawley

Democrats are fawning over Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s call for “new rules” to regulate internet companies like his — and that should worry every freedom-loving American. This is one of the richest men on earth inviting the American government to help him do what he already wants to do anyway. Let’s be perfectly clear: Every single regulatory measure Zuckerberg is calling for would benefit his company, his political allies, and himself personally. At best, regulation would just deflect from the unsavory practices of Facebook and its competitors; at worst, it would enlist government sponsorship for those practices. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner greeted Zuckerberg’s announcement by saying he was “glad to see” that “the era of the social media Wild West is over.” Of course, when Warner refers to the “social media Wild West,” he’s not talking about tech giants routinely censoring and shadow-banning conservatives, banning memes that lampoon their journalist friends, and blatantly discriminating against Republican candidates during election campaigns. Those on the left are determined to prevent a repeat of the 2016 presidential election, which is why they are so adamantly pushing for more censorship online. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have demanded answers from Big Tech regarding its ever-tightening campaign of censorship against the political right and Silicon Valley’s exploitation of its power over the main forums of modern public discourse to potentially swing elections — but their point has been that censorship of any kind is an affront to the American people. We don’t need leftist bureaucrats to tell us what we can say on the internet any more than we need leftist tech executives to police our speech. We don’t need an “independent body” to protect us from “harmful content” — we already have the Supreme Court, the First Amendment, and 100 years of precedent to guide our governance of public forums. Sen. Hawley, for instance, has proposed that the special privileges Facebook enjoys under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act be conditioned on it serving as a viewpoint-neutral public forum.

When St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh on Thursday asked members of the St. Louis Public Radio political team which regional politics story they consider to have been the biggest story of 2018, they were split on their answers. Reporter Jo Mannies deemed now-former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s loss to then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley the top story of the year, but Mannies’ colleague Jason Rosenbaum settled on the saga surrounding former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in May. Their editor, Fred Ehrlich, ultimately sided with Rosenbaum. “I’ve been doing this for a long time … and that is the craziest story I’ve covered in my career, and that includes a lot of interesting, complicated stories,” said Ehrlich. “And one of the reasons was that almost every day there was a new twist and turn in it.” Along with the Greitens case and the U.S. Senate outcome, the conversation about the past year in politics touched on other big stories including newly elected St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell’s victory against longtime incumbent Bob McCulloch, the Illinois gubernatorial race and Missouri voters’ approval of medical marijuana. The politics team also looked ahead to what’s in store regionally in 2019. Listen to the full discussion: St. Louis on the Air brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh and producers Alex Heuer, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan give you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region.

The state’s top-ranking Democrat is on her way out of elective politics, taking with her the last vestiges of Missouri’s former status as a “purple” state. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s exit is a loss not only to Missouri, which has enjoyed responsible and effective representation from her during her dozen years in the Senate, but to our national political system as well. As one of the few remaining moderates in an increasingly polarized Congress, McCaskill’s voice of reason will be missed. McCaskill, 65, a two-term senator, lost her bid for a third term in November to Republican Josh Hawley and delivered her farewell address to the Senate on Thursday. McCaskill told the Post-Dispatch’s Chuck Raasch that she won’t seek elective office again, ending speculation about a possible gubernatorial bid. But she vowed to remain politically active in supporting roles, potentially including working with Democratic legislative candidates. “I am not going to disappear,” she said. That’s good to know. But what ultimately tripped her up was the political story of these times: the ideological polarization of the country, separating Americans person by person, region by region, state by state. It is a longtime battleground state that in a few short years has shifted tectonically to its current status as solid-red Republican.

This is the final part of our four-part series about the results of the 2018 election in the US. Today we look specifically at...

CNN's John Avlon breaks down the GOP's claims that they will protect key parts of Obamacare, despite their efforts to repeal it in recent years.

Watch LIVE at 7:30pm Eastern: President Trump will make a stop in Columbia, MO on his Make America Great Again rally tour before Tuesday's midterm election. Trump is in Missouri campaigning for Republican Josh Hawley, who hopes to unseat Democratic…

With only five days to go until the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats are in a strong position to take back the House. Polling aside, Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle break down what’s really going to happen on election day…

Ari Melber breaks down how Republicans are reversing their positions on Obamacare ahead of the midterm elections, as public approval for Obamacare reaches record levels. Melber walks through examples like Republican Senate Candidate Josh Hawley, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, and candidate…

The Story:  Claire McCaskill (D - Mo) is running for re-election to the US Senate this year. Federal health care policy is one of the...

The Baptist General Convention of Missouri announced Wednesday its support of a continued federal prohibition on churches' political activities. Recently, Republican Attorney General and Senate candidate Josh Hawley has voiced support for repealing the ban, also known as the Johnson Amendment, in the name of protecting religious liberty. That position clashes with the consensus of the Churchnet Baptist convention, which reiterated its support for the Johnson Amendment and said that "the faith community and the nonprofit community widely support the political activity ban." "As a life-long Baptist and ordained pastor, I can’t imagine how damaging it would be to erase this legislation for local churches across the nation." In a news release, Churchnet said its Oct. 16 fall gathering in Liberty, Missouri, would include remarks by the leader of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a group that "led the faith-based coalition that last year advocated for keeping the ban." After this article was published online, Don Hinkle, director of public policy for the Missouri Baptist Convention — which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and includes about 1,900 churches — complained that Churchnet did not represent the majority of Missouri Baptists. The Johnson Amendment "is designed and in effect tries to muzzle the First Amendment rights of people of faith," Hinkle said. For example, he helped out in the Hobby Lobby decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies could justify denying coverage of contraception for employees on the basis of religious objections. A spokeswoman for Hawley's campaign said the attorney general had consulted with religious leaders like Hinkle before voicing his support for repealing the Johnson Amendment. A spokesperson for McCaskill has said she opposes repealing the Johnson Amendment.