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Professional-gun teams far outspend gun management activists

Pro-gun groups far outspend gun control activists

Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler watch in front of U.S. President Donald Trump hosting a campaign event with Perdue and Loeffler at the Valdosta Regional Airport in Valdosta, Georgia, United States, on December 5, 2020.

Dustin Chambers | Reuters

Gun rights groups, under the control of the Senate, are investing millions of dollars in external spending on Georgia’s January 5 runoff to support two Republican candidates.

Meanwhile, gun control groups have lagged far behind in funding the two Democratic candidates, which could affect their chances of winning as well as President-elect Joe Biden’s hopes of passing gun legislation in 2021.

Pro gun groups like the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America support reigning GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, and Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

Republicans will hold a 50-48 majority in the Senate in January. If the Republicans only keep one seat in Georgia, the GOP will keep control of the Senate. If the Democrats win both races, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the casting vote giving the party unified control over the White House and Congress.

As of November 15, the NRA’s political arm has spent more than $ 2.2 million on independent spending such as billboards, advertisements, postcards, text messages, and advertisements that support Perdue and Loeffler or oppose Ossoff, according to the Federal Election Commission and Warnock.

“The NRA has spent millions and there will be more,” said Amy Hunter, spokeswoman for the NRA, in an email.

Other gun rights groups have also invested in external spending on the Senate runoff races, FEC data shows. Gun Owners of America has spent more than $ 126,000 on ads, email, and text messages supporting Loeffler and Perdue. Gun Rights America, the Super-PAC of the National Association for Gun Rights, has spent more than $ 22,000 on digital advertising and contacting voters via phone, mail, and text, opposing Warnock and Ossoff. A PAC called God, Guns & Life has spent more than $ 36,000 on ads supporting the Republican senators.

“It is in the best interests of the United States and our rights to make the Second Amendment when [Ossoff and Warnock] They both lose on Jan. 5, “Dudley Brown, executive director of Gun Rights America, said in a statement.” In any case, I hope that their ambitious political careers will be forgotten and that Georgia voters will save the US Senate. “

“As a wife and mother, I appreciate the second change that allows me to protect myself and my family with firearms,” ​​said Terry Beatley, president of God, Guns & Life PAC. “That’s why God, Guns & Life PAC supports Loeffler and Perdue – they will protect gun rights.”

Gun Owners of America did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Gun control groups focus on voter turnout

While Georgia voters made history by electing Joe Biden as president in November, his gun control platform is unlikely to go anywhere in law without Democratic Senate scrutiny.

“Without a commanding democratic majority, we shouldn’t be holding our breath to make major policy changes anytime soon,” said Kristin Goss, a professor at Duke University who studies weapons policy and politics.

The only external spending in the Georgian drains of a large arms control group so far has come from Brady PAC, according to FEC data. The group spent $ 100,000 on a digital advertising campaign against Loeffler aimed at suburban female voters. Brian Lemek, Brady PAC’s executive director, said the group will monitor the ad and “see if we need to invest more.”

Brady PAC and other gun control groups, Giffords, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action will host a virtual rally on December 18th. The organizations want to collectively raise $ 100,000 for the Georgia Senate Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee of Warnock and Ossoff, according to a Giffords spokesman.

“We are very excited and proud to be working with our colleagues in the movement to ensure that Georgia voters understand the importance of their voice in preventing gun violence,” said Robin Lloyd, executive director of Giffords.

While gun security groups have not yet announced additional financial investments in the runoff election, the organizations have coordinated voluntary efforts to identify voters for the Democratic candidates.

“After a year of saturated air waves, the Georgians know what the candidates are in this race. So the elections will depend on the turnout. We have one of the largest, most active and effective grassroots networks in the country – that’s it.” Why we focus on engaging with voters and wearing our shoes, keyboards and dials, “said Andrew Zucker, a spokesman for Everytown.

On December 16, Everytown and Moms Demand Action reported that their Georgia volunteer network had established at least 115,000 voter contacts for the Ossoff and Warnock campaigns through telephone banking, text banking, acquisition, postcard mailing, and literature distribution.

“Our best resources are people and the communities we build,” said Adrienne Penake, state election director for the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action.

The Georgia Chapter of March For Our Lives, the youth-led gun violence prevention group founded after the deadly mass shootings in Parkland, Florida, aims to reach out to 500,000 voters and young people through traditional outreach methods and address social media.

“If we are to end gun violence, we have to vote for candidates who believe it’s a real problem, who actually work in Washington, not just for the gun lobby,” said Mina Turabi, state director of March For Our Lives Georgia.

The Community Justice Action Fund, a gun safety organization focused on color communities, has referred volunteers on its network to the New Georgia Project and other Georgia-based nonprofits.

“Whichever way you look at this crisis, gun-related deaths mostly affect black and brown people,” said Gregory Jackson, advocacy director at CJAF. “Those who are from Georgia will play an important role in addressing the public health crisis.”

Gun problems in Georgia

Historically, even Democratic political candidates in Georgia have teamed up with pro gun groups like the NRA, but that has changed in recent years.

In the 2018 midterm elections, Democratic MP Lucy McBath deposed an incumbent Republican in Georgia’s 6th Congress District and made gun safety a central part of her platform. Millions of dollars in external spending from gun control groups contributed to victory in 2018 and 2020.

McBath became an advocate for gun violence prevention after her son Jordan Davis was shot dead in 2012. She was a spokesperson for Everytown and Moms Demand Action before running for Congress.

“Arms regulation groups have more money and mobilized energy than ever before in history – and they are seriously involved in elections, which they did not a decade ago,” said Goss, the duke professor.

Among Republican primary voters in Georgia, polled in a poll conducted by the University of Georgia in April 2018, 45% said they wanted stricter laws on the sale of firearms. Among democratic primary voters, who were interviewed in a separate university poll, 90% were in favor of stricter laws.

In 2018, Georgia had the fourth highest firearm death rate in any state, with 1,680 people dying from gun violence, the Centers for Disease Control reported. Guns are the second leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17 in Georgia, according to a Giffords analysis of CDC and FBI data.

Gun violence also disproportionately affects urban color communities in Georgia, according to Giffords. Black men make up about 15% of Georgia’s total population, but make up more than two-thirds of the state’s gun murder victims, data shows.

Gun violence has increased in Georgia and across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. Atlanta recorded the highest number of murders this year since 2003, the Atlanta Journal’s Constitution reported.

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Pence Will Be Vaccinated on Dwell TV, Including to Administration’s Combined Virus Message

Pence Will Be Vaccinated on Live TV, Adding to Administration’s Mixed Virus Message

WASHINGTON — At 8 a.m. on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence will roll up his sleeve to receive the coronavirus vaccine, a televised symbol of reassurance for vaccine skeptics worried about its dangers. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to receive his injection on camera next week.

Notably absent from any planned public proceedings is President Trump, who has said relatively little about the vaccine that may be seen as a singular achievement and has made it clear that he is not scheduled to take it himself.

The vaccine may provide a ray of hope at a time when the surging coronavirus is regularly killing around 3,000 Americans a day. But the message on the virus from the Trump administration’s highest officials remains muddled and often contradictory as they continue to toggle between facing reality and trying to dictate an alternate one.

Mr. Pence, who will receive his first vaccine shot and encourage Americans to follow suit almost six months to the day after he published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,’” hosted a holiday party at his residence this week where guests mingled in an outdoor tent and posed for pictures without masks, according to attendees.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was forced into quarantine after being exposed to someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus after hosting a string of large, indoor holiday parties at the State Department and attending a private party Saturday to watch the annual Army-Navy football game. Only one unofficial adviser in the president’s circle has performed a public mea culpa for his earlier disregard of public health guidelines: Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, who on Wednesday released a television ad urging Americans who do not wear a mask to learn from his own harrowing medical experience and wear one.

The president, who recovered from his own bout with the virus after being treated with experimental drugs at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, is described by aides and allies as preoccupied with the election results he still refuses to accept, and has shown no interest in participating in any kind of public health message.

Even in private conversations, they said, Mr. Trump rarely even brings up the vaccine that the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, described this week as a “medical miracle” that the president, “as the innovator,” deserved credit for.

Instead, Mr. Trump has been focused on his efforts to overturn the election results and consumed by his anger at Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, who this week finally congratulated Mr. Biden on his victory and said that “the Electoral College has spoken.” And he remains frustrated that the vaccine was not available before Election Day, people who have spoken to him said.

But the president is also aware that a large part of his political base is made up of supporters who refuse to wear masks and so-called anti-vaxxers suspicious of the Covid-19 vaccine. After months of positioning himself in opposition to public health experts, people familiar with his thinking said, Mr. Trump feels on some level as if he does not want to be seen as caving in the end to the advice of the same people he has disparaged.

Some supporters with large online followings have even criticized him in recent days for promoting the vaccine at all. “You know, Trump, probably 80 percent of your base does not want that vaccine,” DeAnna Lorraine, a QAnon conspiracy theorist with a large following on Infowars, said on her program last week. “I don’t care who takes it. I don’t care if Jesus takes it. I’m not taking the vaccine.”

As Mr. Trump hesitates, lawmakers and Supreme Court justices are expected to begin receiving vaccines in the coming days, though the doses will be limited. Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Capitol physician, wrote to lawmakers on Thursday that he had been notified by the National Security Council that his office would receive a “specific number” of doses to “provide for continuity-of-government operations.” He told lawmakers they could begin scheduling appointments to be vaccinated and suggested eventually some “continuity-essential staff members” could also receive doses.

“My recommendation to you is absolutely unequivocal: There is no reason why you should defer receiving this vaccine,” Dr. Monahan wrote. “The benefit far exceeds any small risk.”

Covid-19 Vaccines ›

Answers to Your Vaccine Questions

With distribution of a coronavirus vaccine beginning in the U.S., here are answers to some questions you may be wondering about:

    • If I live in the U.S., when can I get the vaccine? While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most will likely put medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is getting made, this article will help.
    • When can I return to normal life after being vaccinated? Life will return to normal only when society as a whole gains enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries authorize a vaccine, they’ll only be able to vaccinate a few percent of their citizens at most in the first couple months. The unvaccinated majority will still remain vulnerable to getting infected. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines are showing robust protection against becoming sick. But it’s also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they’re infected because they experience only mild symptoms or none at all. Scientists don’t yet know if the vaccines also block the transmission of the coronavirus. So for the time being, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds, and so on. Once enough people get vaccinated, it will become very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve that goal, life might start approaching something like normal by the fall 2021.
    • If I’ve been vaccinated, do I still need to wear a mask? Yes, but not forever. Here’s why. The coronavirus vaccines are injected deep into the muscles and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies. This appears to be enough protection to keep the vaccinated person from getting ill. But what’s not clear is whether it’s possible for the virus to bloom in the nose — and be sneezed or breathed out to infect others — even as antibodies elsewhere in the body have mobilized to prevent the vaccinated person from getting sick. The vaccine clinical trials were designed to determine whether vaccinated people are protected from illness — not to find out whether they could still spread the coronavirus. Based on studies of flu vaccine and even patients infected with Covid-19, researchers have reason to be hopeful that vaccinated people won’t spread the virus, but more research is needed. In the meantime, everyone — even vaccinated people — will need to think of themselves as possible silent spreaders and keep wearing a mask. Read more here.
    • Will it hurt? What are the side effects? The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered as a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection into your arm won’t feel different than any other vaccine, but the rate of short-lived side effects does appear higher than a flu shot. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported any serious health problems. The side effects, which can resemble the symptoms of Covid-19, last about a day and appear more likely after the second dose. Early reports from vaccine trials suggest some people might need to take a day off from work because they feel lousy after receiving the second dose. In the Pfizer study, about half developed fatigue. Other side effects occurred in at least 25 to 33 percent of patients, sometimes more, including headaches, chills and muscle pain. While these experiences aren’t pleasant, they are a good sign that your own immune system is mounting a potent response to the vaccine that will provide long-lasting immunity.
    • Will mRNA vaccines change my genes? No. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use a genetic molecule to prime the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse to a cell, allowing the molecule to slip in. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. At any moment, each of our cells may contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they produce in order to make proteins of their own. Once those proteins are made, our cells then shred the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules our cells make can only survive a matter of minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzymes a bit longer, so that the cells can make extra virus proteins and prompt a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only last for a few days at most before they are destroyed.

Dr. Monahan began notifying lawmakers who were eligible for vaccines, and Mr. McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated they would be among the first vaccinated.

Public health officials said they were pleased that the vice president was going to be vaccinated in public, along with Surgeon General Jerome Adams, despite the president’s own lack of interest in sending a similar public health message.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Dr. Vinay Gupta, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Washington. “The question is why don’t they do it together, six feet apart? It would be really powerful for the president, who has gotten exceptional treatment, to say that even in spite of getting the best care, it’s important that I get this vaccine.”

Mr. Trump’s decision, so far, to not get vaccinated, Dr. Gupta said, risked undermining any confidence that Mr. Pence might instill among skeptics who take their cues from the president alone.

“The fact that he is not getting it makes one wonder if he’s worried,” Dr. Gupta said. He also said the muddled messages from the administration — hailing the vaccine while hosting holiday parties — risked “giving false reassurances to the American people that the vaccine is here and vigilance is no longer required.”

White House officials have said Mr. Trump does not need to get vaccinated because he still has the protective effects of the monoclonal antibody cocktail that was used to treat him for the virus in October. But Dr. Gupta said that was a misinterpretation of the results and that there was “no scientific reason not to get vaccinated.”

The first lady, Melania Trump, who tested positive for the virus in October and credited her recovery to a regimen of “vitamins and healthy food,” also has no plans to receive the vaccine in public. A spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, declined to say whether Mrs. Trump would get vaccinated.

Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he would delay a plan for senior White House staff members to receive the coronavirus vaccine in the coming days, hours after The New York Times reported that the administration was planning to rapidly distribute the vaccine to its staff.

“I am not scheduled to take the vaccine,” Mr. Trump added, “but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.”

But many White House officials are eager to receive the vaccine, even as the president has made it clear he wants them to wait.

Doctors from Walter Reed this week set up vaccine stations inside the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. There, they began vaccinating staff considered critical to the functioning of government: That included Secret Service members, some medical staff and some other support staff who work near Mr. Trump.

But Mr. Trump made it clear he does not like the optics of West Wing aides receiving the vaccine, and the White House declined to detail who exactly was receiving it. The number of doses they had received, an official said, was classified.

“His priority is frontline workers, those in long-term care facilities, and he wants to make sure that the vulnerable get access first,” Ms. McEnany said this week. When it came to staff working in the West Wing, she added, “it will be a very limited group of people who have access to it, initially.”

Mr. Pence declined to get the vaccine on the first day it was available to him, despite pressure from aides who wanted him to do so quickly, publicly — and before Mr. Biden held his own public event. Mr. Pence, people familiar with his thinking said, was concerned about the optics of jumping the line, when he wanted the administration to receive credit for the distribution of an effective vaccine to frontline medical workers without any distractions.

Instead, Mr. Pence chose to delay his own vaccination until Friday, when his office has asked all of the television networks to carry him live.

Lara Jakes and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

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Biden hints at a more durable stance towards state sponsors of cyberattacks

Biden hints at a tougher stance against state sponsors of cyberattacks

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he announces additional candidates and candidates during a press conference at his interim headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware on December 11, 2020.

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WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States, under his leadership, would join forces with allies to “incur” significant costs “to opponents of cyberattacks such as the massive breach of US government agencies and corporations revealed earlier this month to impose.

“A good defense is not enough. We must first stop our opponents from carrying out significant cyber attacks,” said Biden in a statement from his transition team.

“We will do this by, among other things, imposing substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks, also in coordination with our allies and partners. Our opponents should know that I, as President, will not remain idle cyber attacks on our nation.”

The statement is Biden’s first formal response as President-elect to news of the month-long cyber attack, which experts say bears the hallmarks of a state-sponsored Russian operation.

It also signals a possible shift towards a tougher stance on Russian cyberwar tactics than that of the current Trump administration.

Biden noted that his in-depth national security team had been briefed on the attacks by career officials at relevant government agencies.

On Wednesday evening, the three lead agencies responsible for investigating the attack and protecting the nation from cyber threats, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, announced the formation of a joint venture Command to respond to what is known as a “major and ongoing cybersecurity campaign” against the United States.

“This is an evolving situation, and as we continue to work to understand the full scope of this campaign, we know that this compromise has affected networks within the federal government,” the agencies said in a joint statement.

Both government agencies and private companies affected by the attack are striving to gain a clearer picture of the full extent of the breach and the potential damage to US cyber infrastructure and critical information systems.

The initial investigation revealed that the breach was malicious code hidden in a software update from widely used IT management company SolarWinds. Russia has denied any involvement in the attack.

In a briefing with Congress officials earlier this week, CISA officials warned that the perpetrator of this attack was sophisticated and that it would take weeks, if not months, to determine the total number of agencies affected by the attack and the extent of sensitive data and information possibly compromised. “

The CISA warning was revealed in a letter the Democratic Committee Chairs in the House of Representatives sent Thursday to senior officials at the FBI, CISA and ODNI for more details about the attack.

This timeline suggests that it will be Biden, not the outgoing President Donald Trump, who will ultimately be responsible for determining what retaliation, if any, is warranted against those behind the attacks. Biden will take office on January 20th.

Trump has yet to respond personally to the latest attack. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that the government is “looking at this closely”.

But Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, described the White House’s lukewarm response to the attack as “inexcusable.”

Trump has had an unusually cordial relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his four-year tenure, despite repeated attempts by the Kremlin to undermine US elections and democratic processes and its cyberwar campaign.

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At Lengthy Final, a Stimulus Nears

At Long Last, a Stimulus Nears

  • Habemus appeal? Congress seemed to be getting closer on a deal Last night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republican colleagues in private that he feared voter frustration could topple Georgia’s two incumbent Senators next month if Congress doesn’t pass another stimulus bill.

  • It has been more than eight months since the last coronavirus stimuli law was incorporated into law. The ink on this bill, which was finalized in late March, wasn’t dry before many lawmakers, union leaders and others began to argue that more help was needed.

  • McConnell has largely refused to negotiate, repeatedly postponing discussions and even rejecting the White House’s occasional attempts to resume talks.

  • But now that Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler need a win Ahead of the January 5 runoff election in Georgia, McConnell announced that he was ready to move forward.

  • He told senators on a private phone call yesterday that they should not leave Washington for the holidays until after this weekend, as he expects lawmakers to take a few more days to finalize the deal and write legislative texts.

  • On the call, McConnell said Loeffler and Perdue were being “hammered” because Congress had stopped providing further pandemic aid.

  • The draft law is discussed now includes funding for direct stimulus payments to Americans. Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, said yesterday he expects $ 600-700 per person, despite some Democrats pushing for a replay of the $ 1,200 spent earlier this year.

  • The bill would not include the corporate and school liability protection McConnell wanted to create as a condition of talks, nor the steady funding for state, local, and tribal governments that the Democrats had identified as essential.

  • While Congress fought over the incentive, the heads of state or government have taken matters into their own hands. In New Mexico, $ 1,200 in stimulus checks were sent to around 130,000 unemployed residents after Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a $ 330 million aid package last month that included small business aid and direct payments to those who lost their jobs.

  • The federal incentive law is expected to be included Billions of dollars in support of vaccine distribution, and this week hospital pharmacists spotted some good news: Many of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine vials that have already been approved for distribution are filled with more than their assigned doses.

  • The Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that it would authorize pharmacists to use the remaining doses after the first five doses – the amount that is expected to be in each vial.

  • Joe Biden has said he will ask Americans to mask themselves for the first 100 days of his term as president. A mask mandate is supported by a large majority in the country but is still not universally popular.

  • A heartland mayor literally had to dodge this week after passing a mask mandate. Joyce Warshaw, the mayor of Dodge City, Kan., Said she received such violent and threatening hate mail after signing a citywide mask mandate that she feared for her safety. That is why Warshaw stepped down yesterday, a few weeks before the end of her year-long term.

  • One message read: “We’re coming to get you.” Warshaw said the word “murder” was used several times. “Our nation is seeing so much division and so much inappropriate bullying that is being accepted and it only worried me,” she said. “I don’t know if these people would act on your words.”

  • To vote the pressure that was built on Biden yesterday Representative Deb Haaland as his Home Secretary, a rare consensus of progressives, moderates and even some Republicans, expressed support for a historic nomination.

  • Haaland, recently elected to a second term and representing the New Mexico First District in Congress, was the first Native American to head the Home Office.

  • Progressive groups, tribal leaders, and some of Haaland’s colleagues in Congress had been pushing Biden to select her for the position for weeks, but House Democratic leaders had raised concerns about allowing Biden to recruit too many representatives from the Democratic caucus given his slim majority.

  • Yesterday the leadership accepted Haaland’s candidacy. “Congresswoman Deb Haaland is one of the most respected and best members of Congress that I have worked with,” said Nancy Pelosi in a statement, adding that she was “an excellent choice” for the Home Secretary.

  • Some progressive groups have also put pressure on Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, who is retiring after 12 years in the Senate, to remove himself from the competition for the cabinet job.

  • Biden is also considering a lot less consensus generating number To serve in his administration: Diana Taylor, a Citigroup board member closely associated with Wall Street.

  • Taylor was the executive director of Wolfensohn Fund Management and the banking supervisor of New York State under former Republican Governor George Pataki. She is also the longtime romantic partner of Michael Bloomberg.

  • It’s not clear what role Biden would fit Taylor into, but one of the roles she is being considered for is the Small Business Administration Administrator, according to those familiar with the selection process.

  • Progressives have expressed concern about their possible choices, which is part of broader concerns about the party’s left flank lack of representation in Biden’s personnel decisions.

  • “The progressive movement deserves a number of seats – important seats – in the Biden administration,” Senator Bernie Sanders, himself a possible candidate for a cabinet post, told Axios recently. “Did I see that at that point? I didn’t. “

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    Biden campaigns for Democrats in Georgia Senate runoff

    Biden campaigns for Democrats in Georgia Senate runoff

    U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks during a rally in support of Democratic Senate candidates in Atlanta, Georgia, December 15, 2020.

    Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

    WASHINGTON – A triumphant president-elect, Joe Biden, went to Georgia on Tuesday to lead an election rally for two Democratic Senate candidates in the state that earned him his biggest disgruntled win in the 2020 presidential contest.

    The drive-in rally in Atlanta was intended to benefit Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both of whom will run run-off against incumbent Republican senators on Jan. 5. It was Biden’s first campaign event as president-elect, held just a day after the election campaign. The electoral college confirmed its victory over President Donald Trump.

    The two runoff elections are about control of the U.S. Senate, and thus the power to either give the green light to Biden’s candidates and his ambitious (and expensive) domestic agenda, or vice versa, to block them.

    If either of the two Republican Senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, win their races, the GOP will retain its current control of the Chamber, and Biden can expect fights for every candidate and every bill.

    Biden had no illusions on Tuesday about the importance of these races. “I need two senators from this state who want to get something done, not two senators who are just getting in each other’s way,” he said. “Send me these two men and we’ll control the Senate and change the lives of the Georgia people.”

    After the angry November victory fueled by suburban and black voters, Democrats rely almost entirely on replicating the record turnout they saw last month. It’s a major challenge – special elections traditionally attract far fewer voters than presidential elections – but Biden urged his supporters to buck the trends.

    “Will Georgia break the record for voting in these Senate elections? I think so,” he said. “But there are a lot of people who bet you won’t. There are a lot of people who think, ‘Georgia broke the record for votes cast in the presidential election, there is no way you can do it again.'”

    “Are you ready to prove them wrong? I think you are. I think Georgia is going to shock the nation with the number of people voting on January 5th,” Biden said.

    In a state with a long history of racial voter suppression, Biden reminded people that Loeffler and Perdue supported a recent lawsuit launched by the Texas Attorney General that sought to disqualify millions of Georgia votes in election results.

    “Your two Republican senators fully embraced what Texas told the Supreme Court,” he said. “You were fully in favor of nullifying nearly 5 million votes in Georgia. You may want to remember that January 5th is coming.”

    Poll averages currently show both Senate races neck to neck, although historical trends favor incumbent senators.

    Biden also drew a sharp contrast between the two Democrats in the race and their Republican opponents when it comes to much-needed funding for coronavirus aid.

    “We need funding for testing and vaccine distribution. We need to get money into people’s pockets right now,” he said. “We can do so much to make the lives of the people of Georgia and the country so much better, and we need senators who are ready.”

    After Biden’s trip, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is also expected to visit Georgia to bolster Ossoff and Warnock, although concrete plans have not yet been released.

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    Variety of Executions in U.S. Falls Regardless of Push by Trump Administration

    Number of Executions in U.S. Falls Despite Push by Trump Administration

    WASHINGTON – Partly because of the impact of the pandemic on the criminal justice system, the number of executions in the United States this year has fallen to its lowest level since 1991 despite the Trump administration reviving the federal death penalty. This emerges from a study published on Wednesday.

    The report from the Information Center on the Death Penalty said seven prisoners were executed by states, the lowest number since 1983. The center led the decrease in executions as well as a decrease in new death sentences due to court closings and public health concerns related to the prison back coronavirus, but also cited a long-term trend away from the death penalty in much of the country.

    In contrast, the federal government executed 10 prisoners, the highest number of federal civilian executions in a single calendar year in the 20th or 21st century. The surge – the first time the federal government has executed more civilian prisoners than all states combined – was the result of a decision by the Trump administration to end an informal 17-year moratorium on the death penalty for federal crimes.

    President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has announced that he will work to end the federal death penalty. However, the Justice Department has planned three more executions in the first half of January before he takes office.

    Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which is not categorically opposed to the death penalty but has been critical of its use, said states and the federal government were exposed to the same virus even though the annual numbers were skewed by the pandemic but reacted very much differently.

    “At the time when almost every state was prioritizing the safety of its citizens over the execution of prisoners, the federal government decided that it was more important to carry out a rash of executions without full judicial review of these cases in the circumstances and public health endangered, ”he said.

    Attorney General William P. Barr announced in July 2019 that the government would execute five men in the coming months, which the courts foiled shortly before the executions began. The Supreme Court then cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume the death penalty in June and allowed any execution.

    In her senior year, the government has also allowed additional available execution options such as firing squads or electrocution. The 17-year federal death penalty hiatus was largely due to legal challenges and the unavailability of lethal injections, said Charles Stimson, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He said the government had simply continued the constitutionally approved tradition of the federal death penalty.

    “Ultimately, if we are to uphold the rule of law, you have to make the rule of law work,” said Stimson.

    This year, the total number of executions by both states and the federal government fell from 22 in the previous year to 17, according to the report.

    Updated

    Apr. 16, 2020, 7:32 am ET

    The coronavirus has spread to correctional facilities across the country, making the death penalty difficult and killing some death row inmates before states can kill them. The Texas courts have stopped or delayed eight executions, and four more have been delayed in Tennessee by court order or by the governor, the report said. Of the 62 execution dates set for that year, only 17 were carried out.

    In contrast to the federal states, the federal government has largely adhered to its schedule despite the dangers of the pandemic.

    Two lawyers for Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row scheduled to be executed, contracted the coronavirus after visiting her client. A judicial statement by a Bureau of Prisons official found that eight members of the team that carried out a federal execution in November at the Terre Haute, Indiana prison complex, where hundreds of cases have been reported, later tested positive for the virus.

    Coronavirus forced states to temporarily close their courts, a major factor that resulted in the fewest new death sentences passed in a year since the Supreme Court repealed existing death penalty laws in 1972.

    According to a Gallup poll, support for the death penalty in murder cases has been around 55 percent since 2017.

    Robert Blecker, professor emeritus at New York Law School, said poll support for the death penalty depends largely on how the question is phrased. Support will rise when the question identifies the circumstances and “atrocities associated with the murder,” he said.

    Colorado became the 22nd state to abolish the death penalty this year, and 12 others have not carried out executions in at least a decade, according to the center’s report.

    In addition, voters in at least nine major counties elected new prosecutors who had pledged to abandon the death penalty or use it sparingly. These districts make up 12 percent of the current death row population, the report said.

    Most likely, the number of executions and death sentences will rise in 2021 and 2022 as the pandemic subsides, said Dunham, the report’s lead author. But those who are to die under the Trump administration will most likely be the final federal executions, at least while Mr Biden is in office.

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    Politics

    U.S. and EU have loads of work to do to rebuild commerce relationship

    U.S. and EU have a lot of work to do to rebuild trade relationship

    American and European politicians are saying the right things about a new approach to transatlantic trade.

    The past few years have been marked by bilateral tensions that have hampered efforts to work together on key issues such as China or WTO reform, and the election of Joe Biden has convinced many that the time has finally come for a productive common agenda. This has led to numerous declarations of a new era of collaboration and “changing the world”.

    But talking is cheap.

    In order to build the trust necessary for a truly productive working relationship, both sides need to give up unilateralist policies and tendencies. On the US side, this includes lifting the EU’s steel and aluminum tariffs and rethinking the recent “Buy America” ​​proposals. For Europe, that means stopping the “asymmetrical” taxation and regulation targeting US companies and workers, including the Digital Markets Act proposal published this week.

    The level of ambition and rhetoric on both sides of the Atlantic is sky high right now. The President-elect has called for confidence in the EU to be restored and for a return to multilateralism. Meanwhile, the Chair of the House Ways & Means Committee is promoting a new US-EU trade deal similar to the previously abandoned transatlantic trade and investment partnership.

    European officials have kept pace. In early December, the Commission published a “new forward-looking transatlantic agenda,” which aims to remove longstanding bilateral trade stimuli, set common standards for emerging technologies, curb China’s unfair trade practices and, among other things, modernize the WTO. Likewise, some senior EU trade officials have spoken openly about how much easier it will be to work with the Biden government.

    There is certainly cause for optimism. The United States and Europe have much in common – a commitment to democracy and free markets, an urgent need to protect businesses and workers from China’s unfair trade practices, and a shared responsibility for creating the WTO. And for the first time in years, senior US and EU leaders seem to understand the importance of eliminating bilateral differences in order to focus on more existential issues.

    But behind all the “happy conversation”, important things remain unsaid and certain troubling actions can speak louder than words.

    To restore confidence, the United States must reverse the EU’s steel and aluminum tariffs. During my time in the White House, there was no other problem that worried my European colleagues more than being targeted by US tariffs in the name of national security. The elected President Biden has so far been silent on this issue. Hopefully, he will quickly realize that the best way to address the distortions in the steel and aluminum markets caused by Chinese overcapacity is not to target the EU but to ask the EU to join the United States for Target China and collect the rest of the US world to do the same.

    The Biden government must also change what the campaign for “Buy America” ​​has promised, a policy that particularly irritates the EU and contributes directly to the decline of TTIP.

    I am once again confident that the president-elect will soon realize that there are more effective ways to promote domestic production in strategic industries domestically without creating tension abroad. In particular, a solid program of targeted subsidies, research and development spending, and public-private partnerships to advance strategic industries can better accomplish laudable US goals without a transatlantic headache.

    Europe must also show political courage, reconcile its actions with its words and reverse its own unilateralism. Make no mistake, a tax policy that sets Gerrymander’s size and business model thresholds to attract American digital businesses for revenue while exempting Europeans is no less one-sided than US steel and aluminum tariffs. It is no less important to remain committed to negotiating with the OECD before taking action that will seriously harm an ally than trying to resolve problems through the WTO.

    The European law on digital markets, which was published just this week, also threatens to put considerable strain on the alliance. The EU is again committed to asymmetrical policymaking targeting American businesses to achieve regulation and massive fines, while using creative thresholds to exempt European digital and non-digital competitors.

    To make matters worse, the EU is constantly pointing out the need for “digital sovereignty”, that this is not a coincidence but a concerted plan to protect EU champions from foreign competition. The EU’s choice to move forward on its own is also in stark contrast to its own transatlantic agenda, which proposes joint standards-setting with the United States. The EU must reverse course, defy its growing one-sided drive on digital issues, and actually coordinate with its ally before proceeding.

    None of these policy changes will be easy. However, they are needed to really reset US-Europe trade and to show that the recent optimism is justified.

    Clete Willems is a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, a CNBC employee and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. His proposal for a joint US-EU WTO reform agenda is available here.

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    Politics

    Billions Spent on U.S. Cyberdefenses Didn’t Detect Large Russian Hack

    Billions Spent on U.S. Cyberdefenses Failed to Detect Giant Russian Hack

    He urged the government to downgrade what it knows and what it doesn’t.

    On Wednesday morning, Illinois Democrat Senator Richard J. Durbin called the Russian cyberattack “practically a declaration of war”.

    So far, however, President Trump has not said anything, perhaps knowing that his term is beginning to end, with questions about what he knew about Russian cyber operations and when. The National Security Agency has largely remained silent and has hidden behind the classification of the secret services. Even the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the group within the Department of Homeland Security tasked with defending critical networks, picked up the Russian mega-hack in a noticeably quiet manner.

    Mr Blumenthal’s message on Twitter was the first official confirmation that Russia was behind the intrusion.

    Trump administration officials have confirmed that several federal agencies – the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, parts of the Pentagon, and the Treasury Department and the Department of Commerce – have been compromised. Investigators struggled to determine the extent to which the military, intelligence services and nuclear laboratories were affected.

    The same questions are asked at many Fortune 500 companies that use the Orion network management tool, made by SolarWinds, based in Austin, Texas. The Los Alamos National Laboratory, which develops nuclear weapons, uses it, as does large defense companies.

    “How is that not a massive secret service failure, especially since we were supposedly all Russian threat actors before the elections,” asked Robert Knake, a senior cyber officer in the Obama administration, on Twitter on Wednesday. “Did the NSA fall into a huge honey pot while the SVR” – Russia’s most sophisticated spy agency – “quietly plundered” the government and private industry?

    Of course, even after placing its probes and beacons on networks around the world, the NSA is barely all-seeing. But if there is a larger investigation – and it’s hard to see how to avoid it – the responsibilities of the agency, led by General Paul M. Nakasone, one of the country’s most skilled cyber warriors, will be paramount.

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    Politics

    Saudi Arabia hires new crop of lobbyists forward of Biden administration

    Saudi Arabia hires new crop of lobbyists ahead of Biden administration

    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on a lobbyist hiring frenzy as President-elect Joe Biden, who has signaled that he will take a tougher stance on the nation, prepares for office.

    With the potential for a more tumultuous relationship with the US, Saudi Arabia has hired a few lobbyists who have ties to Republican congressional leaders.

    These lobbyists may be more successful working with GOP lawmakers in the new Congress rather than Democrats or Biden’s government. Republicans made gains in the House of Representatives in the 2020 election and could have a slight edge in the Senate if they win one of the seats in two Georgia runoffs scheduled for early next month.

    Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations during the Democratic primary last year that he would be reducing US support for Saudi Arabia on key issues.

    “I would end US support for the disastrous Saudi-waged war in Yemen and order a reassessment of our relations with Saudi Arabia,” Biden said at the time. “It is time to restore balance, perspective and loyalty to our values ​​in our Middle Eastern relations. President Trump has given Saudi Arabia a dangerous blank check,” he added.

    The kingdom is largely ruled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. NBC News reported in 2018 that he ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the Crown Prince has denied. The then president stood by Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi’s death. The two nations had signed an arms treaty worth nearly $ 110 billion a year earlier.

    The government of Saudi Arabia spent more than $ 30 million on lobbying activities in 2018, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. So far, spending in 2020 has been $ 5 million.

    A representative from the Saudi embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

    One of the youngest employees came from the Larson Shannahan Slifka Group, an Iowa-based public affairs business, which signed a lucrative deal with the Saudi embassy last year. The embassy, ​​also known as the LS2 group, agreed to pay $ 1.5 million for a year in 2019.

    New records show that LS2 recently launched the Arena Strategy Group for actions that include “informing the public, government officials and the media about the importance of promoting and fostering strong ties between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” be lobbying report says.

    The contract began on December 1, weeks after Biden was declared president-elect, and will include government work, the document says. The contract is valued at approximately $ 5,000 per month.

    Arena’s government efforts are led by Mark Graul, a Republican political strategist who was Wisconsin State Director for President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. He was also Chief of Staff to former Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., When Green was in Congress. Green later became head of the U.S. agency for international development under Trump and resigned earlier this year.

    Graul did not return a request for comment.

    The Saudi Arabian DC embassy recently suspended Off Hill Strategies for the period that spans the final leg of the election through the transition period.

    The company is a boutique lobbying shop founded by Tripp Baird, who was once director of government relations for the conservative organization Heritage Action for America. The contract began in late October, while Biden was ahead of Trump in almost all national polls. It is also advised that the $ 25,000-per-month agreement runs until January 18, two days before Biden is due to be inaugurated.

    The main focus of Off Hill’s lobbying work, according to the treaty, is “to support the public relations work of the embassy congress and to further develop bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America”. A separate report on lobbying disclosure shows that Off Hill helped Saudi Arabia “gather information about year-end omnibus legislation”.

    Baird has not returned a request for comment.

    In another case, the Saudis turned to a leading public relations firm to help develop an expensive urban development designed to bolster the country’s growing international ambitions.

    According to a file, a senior PR juggernaut Edelman emailed a massive Saudi land development leader named Neom to clarify their agreement. Jere Sullivan, the company’s vice chairman for global public affairs, told Neom that Edelman will provide strategic advice, media relations, stakeholder identification and engagement, and content development.

    The agreement is set to run from mid-November to February, according to the email, and is expected to cost up to $ 75,000 per month.

    According to the Edelman Foreign Lobbying Disclosure Report, Neom is “100% owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign property of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As such, its activities are monitored, directed, controlled, financed and funded subsidized by the PIF. “

    The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the Neom project is supported by MBS and the project is valued at $ 500 billion for the Saudi city-state. The Journal reported at the time that by 2030, MBS hopes this newly developed region will be one of the global technology centers. The Saudi leadership believes it could replace the US technology center Silicon Valley. The projected schedule for completion coincides with Biden’s first term as president and would extend beyond 2024.

    Neom’s website states that it is “a region in northwestern Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea to be built from the ground up as a living laboratory,” and that it “will offer a multitude of unique development opportunities as its strategic Red Sea coastal location is notable for its proximity to international markets and trade routes. “

    The group expects the project to be completed in the next seven to ten years.

    Sullivan declined to comment.

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    Politics

    Leaders in Congress Meet in Search of Stimulus and Spending Offers

    Leaders in Congress Meet in Search of Stimulus and Spending Deals

    Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Mr McConnell pointed to the forked plan as he continued to urge lawmakers to ditch the two items and approve a tight package of funds to distribute vaccines, unemployment benefits and aid to schools and small businesses. After months of insisting that full liability coverage was a “red line” for another package, Mr. McConnell reiterated that he was ready to drop demand if Democrats agree to give up their top priority as well.

    “We all know that the new administration will ask for another package,” McConnell said at a weekly press conference. “It’s not that we won’t have another opportunity to discuss the benefits of liability reform and state and local government in the near future.”

    Even if the four leaders reached an agreement, it would most likely face hurdles from some simple lawmakers as Republicans scrub the prospect of spending billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money and Democrats argue that an agreement is less than 1 trillion Dollars would not be enough.

    Some lawmakers are also running a pressure campaign to include direct payments for all working Americans in the stimulus agreement. Two Senators, Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri and Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, have threatened to uphold the government’s broader funding bill if Congress fails to ensure that Americans receive payments of $ 1,200 per adult and $ 500 per child received under the economic stimulus measure.

    In a letter sent to heads of state and government, liberal lawmakers, led by representatives Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Ro Khanna and Katie Porter of California argued that such payments are “an essential part of any Covid relief package.” They pushed for direct payments of at least $ 2,000 and unemployment benefits for at least six months, including improved fringe benefits, which expired earlier this year.

    “We have had this issue of direct payments on the table for months and are ready to consider various amounts,” said Ms. Jayapal. “There is absolutely no reason why we can’t make the direct payments and get the Senate to take them out.”

    The White House has expressed its support for another round of direct payments, and Mr Mnuchin has included a $ 600 stimulus check in its most recent offer to Ms. Pelosi. But the Democrats were considering this $ 916 billion proposal because it failed to revive the additional unemployment benefits that lapsed in the summer.

    “I’m not going to say whether that’s a red line or not,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as he urged President Trump to approve a stimulus package with no direct payments. “We hope that there is a deal there that the president can then examine and support.”

    Catie Edmondson reported from Washington and Ben Casselman from New York.