Tag: Stacey Abrams

 The Story:  The Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for President, former Vice President Joe Biden, continues to mull the question who he wants on the ticket...

Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein says while "a dozen or so" names are in the mix, the race to replace Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) is "completely up in the air." » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth…

The Story: In 2018 Stacey Abrams ran for Governor of Georgia, and very nearly won (losing to Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee, by only 50,000...

Spending by Fair Fight Action, a nonprofit that former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams founded to advance voting rights, and which is staffed by former Abrams campaign aides, is prompting questions about whether it's inappropriately supporting her political ambitions. The group pointed to roughly $100,000 worth of Facebook ads featuring Abrams, an advertisement for a “Stacey Abrams Fundraiser” that featured Fair Fight Action’s logo, travel for Abrams’ post-election “thank you” tour of Georgia and a professionally produced “highlight reel” of Abrams footage on the group’s website. The complaint argued Fair Fight Action has been supporting Abrams’ political ambitions, not advocating for voting rights. That would be a violation of tax law that forbids political 501(c)(4) nonprofits from providing a “private benefit” to a particular person or group, according to a copy of the complaint provided to The Associated Press. The group typically files ethics complaints against Democrats but also has targeted some Republicans, including North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, a leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Fair Fight Action CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ former campaign manager, disputed the details of FACT’s complaint. She said that while Abrams is the figurehead of the organization, Fair Fight Action’s promotional activities have always focused on voting rights issues. “It’s no surprise that right-wing hit groups allied with Donald Trump are launching bogus attacks against Fair Fight,” she said in an emailed statement. Caitlin Highland, an Abrams spokeswoman, said Abrams will step down from Fair Fight Action if she runs for office again. It has not yet filed tax paperwork showing what it raised in 2018 when she was running for governor.

Joe Biden knows what you’re thinking. He has seen the stories, too. He knows that, as a senator representing Delaware for nearly half a century, his extensive ties to the banking, credit, and financial industries are liabilities in an increasingly populist Democratic Party. The other is to name Stacey Abrams, a black woman 31 years his junior, as his running mate early in the race. Such a “big play,” in the New York Times’ words, “would send a signal about the seriousness of the election, and could potentially appeal to both liberal activists and general-election voters who are eager to chart the safest route toward defeating President Trump.” But the fact that Biden is even considering these moves only underscores his innumerable flaws, rather than addressing them. Biden’s age, like that of the 77-year-old Bernie Sanders, undoubtedly would be a concern for some Americans, given the erratic and seemingly cognitively impaired septuagenarian currently in the White House. He bragged that one Democrat-backed crime bill in 1992 did “everything but hang people for jaywalking”; two years later he would be a principal author of the 1994 crime bill that exacerbated mass incarceration. I know we haven’t always gotten things right, but I’ve always tried.” Biden also recently suggested that he owes an apology to Anita Hill for his handling, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, of her accusations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas. I wish I could’ve done more to prevent those questions and the way they asked them,” he said on the Today show last year. And if you’re a career-long politician who can’t run on your record, then why are you running at all?

Former Florida governor candidate Andrew Gillum on Friday night laid out how Democrats might win the White House in 2020. But homestate audiences noticed when he suggested his most recent electoral contest might have seen a different outcome. Earlier in his conversation with Maher, Gillum noted he and Abrams both lost by “rounding error” margins. But while Gillum lost by a closer margin than previously witnessed in a gubernatorial election, few Democrats label DeSantis’ victory as invalid. Democratic political consultant Matthew Isbell said he’d like to know how Gillum imagines any action could have produced a different outcome in Florida. Someone show me this math.” But days before Gillum makes a “major announcement” in South Florida, panelists seemed most focused on the Florida Democrat’s next move. After former Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke announced he would run for president, Maher noted losing in 2018 didn’t prohibit a run. But he stressed the need for the electorate to witness diversity in the candidate pool. “I’m most interested in your beliefs.” But he did tout his recent run for governor, noting he had been severely outspent in a broad primary field but came out victorious. In the general election, black voters turned out at a rate consistent with the share of the population for the first time.

When it comes to ‘90s-era Star Trek series, Voyager doesn’t always get its due, maybe because it couldn’t quite live up to the high standard set by The Next Generation or because it lacked the gravitas and daring of Deep Space Nine. (Or maybe it’s just because we’re all trying to avoid thinking too hard about the events of “Threshold.”) Still, Voyager stayed true to Star Trek’s overarching spirit of exploration and cooperation, forcing two very different groups of people to work together to survive and testing the characters’ utopian ideals by stranding them far from the safety of the Federation. Plus, the series was the first in the franchise to be led by a female captain, Kathryn Janeway, played by the dynamic Kate Mulgrew. The show’s lasting influence can be felt in two stories from this week about prominent Democratic politicians, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Stacey Abrams, both of whom are fans of Voyager and, in particular, its lead character. The first surprise nod to Trek in the political spherecame from the Daily Mail’s unexpectedly wholesome interview with Blanca Ocasio-Cortez, who described how Voyager became a portent of her daughter’s future success. “One of the last things she did with her dad before he died was sit with him and watch a Star Trek: Voyager episode on TV,” Blanca explained. “In one scene, Captain Janeway (a character played by Kate Mulgrew) appears and my husband, who could no longer talk, pointed at the captain then at Alexandria, and back and forth, to say to her he thought she’d be like Captain Janeway one day, someone in charge.” Years later, Mulgrew showed up at one of Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign rallies, apparently without warning, to endorse her candidacy and give her a communicator. The other Voyager shoutout appeared in the New York Times on Thursday in a story with the headline “Stacey Abrams, Star Trek Nerd, Is Traveling at Warp Speed.” In quotes from a previously unpublished interview from last summer, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate says that while The Next Generation is her favorite series, she “reveres Admiral Janeway.” She also shows off her good taste in Trek by picking a Voyager episode, “Shattered,” as a favorite. It’s a deep enough cut that it doesn’t usually make the Top 10 lists, but it is still a well-respected time travel episode and one that’s more rewarding to diehard Trekkies rather than casual viewers. I’m no political strategist, but the 2020 presidential candidates should strongly consider “There’s coffee in that nebula” as a campaign slogan.

John Bazemore/Associated Press The House Oversight and Reform Committee is investigating allegations of voter suppression in Georgia under Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who has since become governor. The letters instructed Mr. Kemp and Mr. Raffensperger — both Republicans — to provide by March 20 a wide range of documents concerning voter roll purges; holds placed on voter registration applications; polling site changes and closings; and other voting-related issues. The committee also requested all documents related to the potential conflict of interest Mr. Kemp faced in administering an election in which he was a candidate. [Make sense of the people, issues and ideas shaping American politics with our newsletter.] The letter outlined several points of scrutiny during the 2018 governor’s race, in which Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, posed a strong challenge to Mr. Kemp in a normally solidly Republican state. Mr. Kemp’s office purged more than 1.4 million voters from the rolls during his tenure. And county and state officials closed more than 200 polling places from 2012 to 2018. Asked for comment on Wednesday, his spokesman directed The Times to video of a news conference where Mr. Kemp suggested that the investigation was a politically motivated distraction from more important issues. “They need to quit playing politics up there,” Mr. Kemp said at the news conference, before pivoting to an attack on House Democrats for giving billions of dollars in disaster aid to Puerto Rico “when we have our own farmers that are fixing to lose their farm.” He said nothing about the substance of the allegations or the document requests, and his spokesman did not respond to a follow-up email. Mr. Raffensperger, the current secretary of state, said that he had received his own letter and that his office “looks forward to an open dialogue and a thorough process.” Mr. Cummings and Mr. Raskin, the Democratic committee leaders, were not immediately available for interviews on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. He warned emboldened Democrats that "ridiculous partisan investigations" into his administration and businesses could hamper a surging American economy. Nor does the GOP support the president's plan to declare a national emergency if Congress won't fund the wall. But he delivered no ultimatums about what it would take for him to sign legislation to keep the government open. Trump devoted much of his speech to foreign policy, another area where Republicans have increasingly distanced themselves from the White House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was praised by Democrats for her hard-line negotiating during the shutdown, sat behind Trump as he spoke. And several senators running for president were also in the audience, including Sens. The diverse Democratic caucus, which includes a bevy of women, sat silently for much of Trump's speech. Turning to foreign policy, another area where Republicans have increasingly been willing to distance themselves from the president, Trump defended his decisions to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan. They sat with first lady Melania Trump during the address.

Based on early reports, Trump will call for bipartisan “unity” hours after attacking Chuck Schumer on Twitter, and probably hours before attacking Stacey Abrams, Bernie Sanders, the New England Patriots, and whoever else he believes has grievously wronged him, in the spirit of a Real Housewife of Orange County several liters of Chardonnay deep. No, this child was not taken from his parents at the border thanks to the administration‘s family-separation policy. Nor is he a refugee, an undocumented immigrant, Latino, Black, Jewish, L.G.B.T.Q., or any other individual victimized on a daily basis thanks to this administration. Instead: An 11-year-old boy who says he’s been bullied because of his last name—Trump—will be one of President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s guests at the State of the Union on Tuesday, the White House announced. Inviting him to sit in the SOTU audience and highlighting his plight is the height of rich, though, considering: 1) the president would be unlikely to show such sympathy toward any bullied individual who didn’t share his last name; 2) all of the kids Trump’s policies have hurt just as badly, if not worse; and 3) he is literally known for spending valuable “Executive Time” coming up with nicknames to mock his enemies: On the other hand, it’s not entirely surprising the administration would think this was a good idea, and not just because the cognitive dissonance is strong with this group. Using children as political props has been their thing for some time now. Before Joshua, there was the letter from then-10-year-old Frank, whose request to mow the White House lawn was read aloud by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and bizarrely used to back Trump’s calls to restrict legal immigration. Before that, there was Dylan Harbin, a.k.a. To be fair, you can understand why the White House wouldn’t want to discuss the Treasury announcing the U.S. will borrow $1 trillion for a second year in a row to finance the deficit, given that part of the reason is the tax cuts corporations just had to have, in addition to government spending increases. Even Bloomberg is panning Amazon’s New York tax breaks “You read in the paper Amazon opened one of their new two headquarters, or are in the process of doing it, very close to here.