The Donald Trump Score Card

The U.S. Senate seat in Ohio opened after Portman decided to not seek reelection.


Rob Portman: Ohio Republican senator won't run for re-election in 2022

excerpt:

"He said he hopes he will be remembered for the legislation he's passed, and he urged politicians to do a better job of working together.

“If we just keep pushing out to the right and to the left, there’s not going to be much left in the middle to solve the real problems we face,” Portman said.

One of Greater Cincinnati's most prominent politicians, Portman was once expected to be headed to national office.

But after three decades in Washington, he has grown tired of the incivility in politics and the increasing partisan divide. The "partisan gridlock" and rancor in Washington, D.C., played a big factor in his decision to step down, he said."

 

Colorado woman charged in connection with riot at Capitol.


Colorado Springs Woman Jennifer Horvath Newly Charged In Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

excerpt:

"(CBS4) – A woman from Colorado Springs is the most recent Coloradan arrested and charged in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Jennifer Horvath made her first appearance in federal court on Tuesday and is facing several charges:

– knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority
– disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds
– disorder conduct on capitol grounds
– other offenses on capitol grounds

The criminal complaint includes a number of images taken from a variety of cameras recording events over the course of that chaotic and deadly afternoon.

The FBI agent investigating Horvath describes her as the girlfriend of Wes Croy, another Coloradan who has already been sentenced for his role in the insurrection.

The agent interviewed one of Horvath’s former co-workers in December who identified her as the woman with long blond hair wearing a red Trump baseball cap inside the Capitol. This image below was taken about 20 minutes after Croy was seen entering the building:"

 

Trump-endorsed Vance will be facing Ryan for the U.S. Senate seat.


One Moderate Against the Red Wave

excerpt:

"President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in 2020 buttressed the case for the moderate Democrat. Yet many of those moderates are fighting off extinction as national polarization nudges places like Ohio further away from the Democratic Party. After Barack Obama carried the state twice (by four points in 2008 and two points in 2012), Trump assembled back-to-back, eight-point victories built on high rural turnout.

Redistricting factored into Ryan’s decision to abandon his House seat for a Senate run, but Ryan himself already had been losing the support of some white working-class voters. He won his northeastern congressional district with just 52.5 percent of the vote in 2020, after capturing 68 percent in 2016 and 72.5 percent in 2012. (Ryan faces two opponents in the Democratic primary on Tuesday but is considered the clear front-runner.) It doesn’t help that the political environment looks exceptionally disastrous for Democrats this midterm cycle."

 

Candidates whom Trump endorsed who won the primary in Ohio on May 3.


Here are the Trump-backed candidates who won Tuesday's primaries

excerpt:

Ohio wins

Secretary of State
Frank LaRose

Won with 65 percent of the vote. The incumbent secretary of state was an ardent defender of the 2020 election process, saying both Trump and Biden needed to stop questioning election integrity. But LaRose took a more partisan turn in the last few months, tweeting that “President Trump is right to say voter fraud is a serious problem,” despite no evidence of widespread malpractice.

Attorney General
Dave Yost
Unopposed.

U.S. Senate
J.D. Vance
Won with 32 percent of the vote.

Vance, the author of the book “Hillbilly Elegy,” once referred to Trump as “an idiot,” called himself a “Never Trump guy” and said he considered voting for Hillary Clinton. But he changed his tune once he began his pursuit of the Senate nomination. His conversion to full-throated Trump supporter paid off as Trump delivered his stamp of approval not long before the primary — an endorsement that helped power Vance to victory. Vance will face Democratic nominee Tim Ryan in November.

Treasurer
Robert Sprague
Unopposed.

Auditor
Keith Faber
Unopposed.

OH-01
Steve Chabot
Unopposed. Chabot voted to overturn 2020 election results.

OH-02
Brad Wenstrup
Won with 78 percent of the vote.

OH-04
Jim Jordan
Unopposed. Jordan voted to overturn 2020 election results.

OH-05
Robert Latta
Unopposed.

OH-06
Bill Johnson
Won with 77 percent of the vote. Johnson voted to overturn 2020 election results.

OH-07
Max Miller
Won with 72 percent of the vote.

Miller, a former Trump aide, was by far the highest fundraiser in the race for the solid Republican district. He was originally endorsed by Trump to take on Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who was one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment before he decided to retire.

OH-08
Warren Davidson
Won with 71 percent of the vote. Davidson voted to overturn 2020 election results.

OH-10
Michael Turner
Unopposed.

OH-12
Troy Balderson
Won with 82 percent of the vote.

OH-13
Madison Gesiotto Gilbert
Won with 29 percent of the vote.

Gesiotto Gilbert is a conservative commentator and attorney who served as co-chair of the Women for Trump advisory board.

OH-15
Mike Carey
Unopposed.

Carey, a former coal lobbyist, got Trump’s endorsement last year during a special election to replace Republican Rep. Steve Stivers. He captured it a second time in April, as Trump noted, “With my endorsement, Mike resoundingly won his special election last year.”

 

Candidates whom Trump endorsed who won the primary in Indiana on May 3.


Here are the Trump-backed candidates who won Tuesday's primaries

excerpt:

Indiana wins

IN-02
Jackie Walorski
Unopposed. Walorski voted to overturn 2020 election results.

IN-03
Jim Banks
Unopposed.

IN-04
James Baird
Unopposed. Baird voted to overturn 2020 election results.

IN-05
Victoria Spartz
Unopposed.

IN-06
Greg Pence
Won with 78 percent of the vote.

The older brother of former Vice President Mike Pence, Greg Pence voted to overturn 2020 election results. In his endorsement, Trump made no mention of his strained relationship with Pence’s younger brother. “Greg is working hard to reverse Joe Biden’s disastrous record of out-of-control Inflation and restore the respect our Country deserves from abroad. He is Strong on the Border, Protects Life, Defends the Second Amendment, and Supports our brave Military and Vets,” Trump said in a statement.

IN-08
Larry Bucshon
Unopposed.

 

There is no accounting for stupidity

 

Someday, a Democratic majority in Congress will refuse to even allow a hearing for a Republican president's Supreme Court pick.

When it happens, the GOP will scream bloody murder, apparently ignoring the point that they started this practice with the whole Garland mess.

Naturally, Republican lawmakers and voters will fail to recognize the irony.

 

Trump flexes and the center shrinks: 5 takeaways from a key primary night

excerpt:

"Trump’s long game

Trump probably has one more chance to run for president, in 2024. But the 75-year-old former president is putting an imprint on the party in the midterms that could last for decades, regardless of whether he runs again.

Vance, his endorsed candidate in the Ohio Senate race, is only 37. Max Miller, a former Trump aide who won his House primary in Ohio in a landslide, is in his early 30s. In a northeast Ohio House race, Trump-backed attorney Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, who is 30, was running ahead in early returns. Rep. Ted Budd, who has a comfortable lead in North Carolina’s Senate primary, which will be held later this month, is 50."

 

For Conservative Legal Movement, a Long-Sought Triumph Appears at Hand

excerpt:

"If the Supreme Court does issue a final opinion that looks much like the leaked draft, one question the moment will raise is what the conservative bloc does next with its control over the judiciary. Already, for example, the court has decided to hear a case in its next term that will give it an opportunity to curtail race-based affirmative action in college admissions.

The libertarian faction within the movement wants to curb the power of the administrative state that grew up in the New Deal, limiting the authority of regulatory agencies. The cultural conservative faction is focused on religious freedom and the scope and limits of the rights of Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender — including lingering discontent with a 2015 ruling declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was among the Democratic lawmakers who expressed concern that the draft opinion would pave the way for other precedents to be overturned, citing the case that bars states from blocking same-sex couples from getting married, among others.

“It’s appalling because it doesn’t just chip a little piece off Roe v. Wade,” Warren said. “It takes a pickax to it and in doing so, it opens up the risk of losing a whole stack of other rights that we’ve come to depend on.”"

 

For Conservative Legal Movement, a Long-Sought Triumph Appears at Hand

excerpt:

"The movement took root in the 1980s. The Federalist Society — a network for legal conservatives — was founded on law school campuses and soon spread to chapters for working lawyers. And legal conservatives flooded into the Reagan administration working for figures like Meese, whose Justice Department became a sort of think tank for developing ideas like an originalist approach to the Constitution.

The Reagan administration began trying to vet judicial candidates more along ideological grounds than under previous Republican presidencies, nominating several starkly conservative jurists. That culminated in the battle over the failed Supreme Court nomination of Bork — an outspoken critic of Roe v. Wade whom Democrats and some Republicans in the Senate saw as too extreme.

During their 12 years in power, the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations had five opportunities to appoint justices to the nine-member Supreme Court, raising the possibility that they could have installed a majority willing to overturn Roe a generation ago. But in a 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court instead reaffirmed a constitutional right to abortion."

 

For Conservative Legal Movement, a Long-Sought Triumph Appears at Hand

excerpt:

"Court-focused voters helped deliver Trump’s narrow Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton, exit polls showed. And aided by the abolition of the filibuster rule in the Senate for judicial nominations, Trump fulfilled his end of the deal, putting forward a series of movement conservative nominees, including three justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. All appear to have given preliminary approval to overturning Roe, fulfilling the vision Meese, who is now 90, put before the clergy members in 1987.

“I think that releasing that list of names made it clear that Trump and his team actually understood what the conservative legal movement was doing,” said Carrie Severino, the president of the Judicial Crisis Network, which advocates on behalf of confirming conservative judges.

“The judgment of a lot of conservatives — that this next president will have a big impact on the direction of the courts via their nominees — has been vindicated by seeing that these justices are outstanding and committed to the original understanding of the Constitution,” she went on. “You can’t have a starker contrast with the sort of person Hillary Clinton would have been putting on the court — we wouldn’t be having this conversation today.”"

 

This is why we need term limits, even for judges.

 

Democrat upsets candidate who made controversial rape comments in bid for Michigan House

excerpt:

"In an upset win Tuesday, Democrat Carol Glanville defeated Republican Robert “RJ” Regan in a special election for a Michigan House seat that had only ever been held by a Republican.

Results remain unofficial, but with all precincts in the district reporting, Glanville led Regan by more than 1,500 votes as of 10:30 p.m. She topped 51% of the total votes cast; Regan garnered 40% and 7.9% went to write-ins.

The district was one of four House districts with special elections to fill vacant seats on Tuesday. A number of municipalities also had local proposals on the ballot.

Regan made national headlines in March for suggesting rape victims "lie back and enjoy it," after he promoted conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and shared antisemitic rhetoric. He was favored to win in the heavily Republican district."

 

Article from 2017 about Trump's corporate tax cut bill that passed with the help of Collins.


Key senators sold their votes on the tax bill for some high-risk deals

excerpt:

"Collins said she would vote for the bill as long as Republicans agreed to pass the bipartisan Alexander-Murray bill to attempt to stabilize the Obamacare exchanges by adding it to an end-of-year spending bill. The Maine senator also wants Republicans to commit to passing a bill that would waive a 2010 “pay-as-you-go” law. This law could automatically trigger a $25 billion cut to Medicare because the tax bill is projected to increase the deficit by an estimated $1 trillion over the next decade.

Collins thinks her agreements with Senate leadership are ironclad, as she told anti-tax bill activists last week. During a meeting with activists in her Senate office last week, Collins pushed back when some told her that her fellow Senate Republicans were lying to her.

“I do not believe that I’ve given up leverage,” Collins told activists. “I’ve used my leverage to negotiate agreements that are promises to me. I’m sorry that you don’t believe in the agreements.”

But there’s a major roadblock to Collins’s health care goals: House Republicans.

Republicans in the House have said that Collins made her negotiations with Senate leadership, not them. And they’re clearly feeling no obligation to play by her rules.

“No, we didn’t agree to that vote,” Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) told reporters on Tuesday, after the House passed the tax bill. “When one person has leverage over the House and the Senate, and the American people, something’s wrong with your Democratic system. That should not be happening on any issue.”"

 

Collins thought Trump learned his lesson from his first impeachment.


Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski Think Donald Trump Is No Longer a Danger

excerpt:

"On Wednesday, the Senate is voting to acquit President Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress following a marathon few days of speeches, half of which came from Republican senators justifying their votes to acquit. Having listened through the hodgepodge of whataboutism, process complaints, and occasional outright fascism, one hesitates to focus on Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins because their reputations as GOP “moderates” have always been more a stylist’s branding choice than reality, and because holding Republican women in power to a higher standard than men has never redounded to the benefit of anyone, including women. But when powerful women who should see through the gaslighting instead pick up the proffered gaslighting torch and set small brushfires, it’s worth taking note. Certainly, the Susan Collins who persuaded herself that Christine Blasey Ford was confused and that Brett Kavanaugh would vote to uphold Roe was never going to get it right about Donald Trump, even before she announced her vote to acquit him. And certainly the Lisa Murkowski who was willing to vote against Kavanaugh was likely destined to capitulate when it came to impeachment. One could nevertheless wish for coherent constitutional arguments. Instead, there were vague and conclusory feelings."

 

is really gullible.

 

Collins voted to convict Trump on his second impeachment.

Trump's violence had to reach her workplace to change her mind.


All New England Senators Voted To Convict Trump In His 2nd Impeachment Trial

 

Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski Think Donald Trump Is No Longer a Danger

excerpt:

"Susan Collins, who announced her vote to acquit on Tuesday, was only fractionally sillier, if less sad. She seized upon the claim that impeachment requires a crime-ish act, said that censure was a better option, and faulted the House for failing to subpoena John Bolton, after his attorney announced that he would fight such a subpoena in court. Collins, like Murkowski, conceded that Trump’s actions with regard to Ukraine were “improper” and said they “demonstrated very poor judgment.” On this one point she was clear: “It was wrong for President Trump to mention former Vice President Biden on that phone call, and it was wrong for him to ask a foreign country to investigate a political rival,” Collins said. “This decision is not about whether you like or dislike this president or agree with or oppose his policies or approve or disapprove of his conduct in other circumstances. Rather it is about whether the charges meet the very high constitutional standard of treason, bribery or other high crimes or misdemeanors.”"

 

Article from February 2020.


Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski Think Donald Trump Is No Longer a Danger

excerpt:

"Almost plausible. But then she blew it with her feelings. Because Collins, unlike Murkowski, who is sad, is going for sunny optimism. She promptly told CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, “I believe that the president has learned from this case” and that he “will be much more cautious in the future.” Evincing no understanding whatsoever of President Donald J. Trump’s character, she insisted that she feels he will now behave lawfully: “The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.” The president reportedly responded immediately to her statement by disputing that he had done anything wrong during an off-the-record press meeting before the State of the Union. Asked about Collins’ claim that he’d learned a lesson, Trump said absolutely not. “It was a perfect call.” Imagine, for a moment, that Collins, faced with actual evidence that the president had no actual remorse or regrets about his improper actions, had the actual power to change her mind, or her vote, or her statement. Don’t bother. There are, after all, those shady super PACs boosting her 2020 reelection bid to consider.

In the end, Senate Republicans who feign concern at the president’s “improper” solicitation of election help are actually vastly more chilling than those who named the whistleblower and threaten to open investigations into Hunter Biden. The latter are performing sociopathy, wholly divorced from any norm or constraint on both Senate behavior and fact. But the former are performing something that looks like norm-preserving moderation, and neutrality, and comity and both-sides pearl clutching, as they fritter away their actual power to check and constrain misconduct. This is not civility and it is not statesmanship; it is surrender, styled as sober leadership."