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Senate Republicans block S1 For the Folks Act invoice

Senate Republicans block S1 For the People Act bill

Senate Republicans blocked a sprawling Democratic voting rights and government ethics bill Tuesday, as federal efforts to respond to a rash of restrictive ballot laws passed by GOP-held state legislatures hit a wall.

The For the People Act aims to set up automatic voter registration, expand early voting, ensure more transparency in political donations and limit partisan drawing of congressional districts, among other provisions. Democrats pushed for the reforms before the 2020 election, but called them more necessary to protect the democratic process after former President Donald Trump’s false claims of electoral fraud sparked an attack on the Capitol and restrictive state voting measures.

The House passed its version of the bill in March. The measure failed a procedural test in the Senate Tuesday, as Republicans voted against starting debate on it.

The plan needed 60 votes to advance in the Senate, split evenly by party. It fell along party lines in a 50-50 vote.

After the bill failed to advance, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized his GOP counterparts for reluctance to start the process of debating and amending the bill.

“Now, Republican senators may have prevented us from having a debate on voting rights today,” he said. “But I want to be very clear about one thing: the fight to protect voting rights is not over. By no means. In the fight for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun, not the finish line.”

Schumer said the Senate has “several, serious options for how to reconsider this issue and advance legislation to combat voter suppression.” He said he plans to “explore every last one of our options.”

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Republicans have framed the legislation as a power grab by Democrats. They have argued states rather than the federal government should have leeway to set election laws.

The GOP has also questioned the need for a new bill to protect voting rights. Republicans have downplayed the restrictive laws in states such as Georgia and Florida, which took steps including making it harder to vote absentee and limiting ballot drop-off boxes. Critics of the measures say they will disproportionately hurt voters of color and give GOP officials more power over election outcomes.

Ahead of the Senate vote, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the Democratic bill a “transparently partisan plan,” stressing it was in the works before Republican-led legislatures passed voting laws.

“The Senate is only an obstacle when the policy is flawed and the process is rotten,” he said.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) takes part in a news conference held by Republican senators about the “H.R.1 – For the People Act” bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 17, 2021.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Schumer disputed the argument that the federal government should not exert its will on election laws. He pointed to past bills such as the Voting Rights Act that protected voters from discrimination.

The Biden administration has formally backed the For the People Act as the president considers voting rights a key piece of his agenda. In a statement after the vote, Biden said Democrats “unanimously came together to protect the sacred right to vote.”

He later continued: “Unfortunately, a Democratic stand to protect our democracy met a solid Republican wall of opposition. Senate Republicans opposed even a debate—even considering—legislation to protect the right to vote and our democracy.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has met with voting rights advocates in recent weeks, presided over the Senate vote on Tuesday. She plans in the coming weeks to promote registration and work with state leaders who are pushing back on restrictive bills, NBC News reported.

The For the People Act has little chance of revival in the current Senate. At least two Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — oppose scrapping the legislative filibuster, which would allow the party to pass more bills without Republicans.

Liberals have urged the party to abolish the 60-vote threshold as Democrats pursue their priorities with control of the White House and narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

But Manchin has signaled he would oppose final passage of the Democratic-led bill, potentially killing chances of its passage even without the filibuster. He has said he wants to approve a voting rights plan with GOP support, despite Republican opposition to more modest plans to protect ballot access.

Manchin proposed a potential compromise, which includes Democratic-backed provisions such as 15 days of early voting for federal elections and automatic voter registration at state motor vehicles agencies. It also calls for voter identification requirements, which Republicans have typically supported.

McConnell shot down the plan, arguing it contains the “rotten core” of Democrats’ bill.

Manchin did not commit until Tuesday afternoon to voting to start debate on his party’s legislation. Schumer announced a deal to take up Manchin’s proposal as an amendment if the For the People Act cleared the procedural vote.

The senator’s support ensured every Democrat would vote to advance the bill while Republicans blocked it.

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Politics

Concentrating on ‘Important Race Concept,’ Republicans Rattle American Faculties

Targeting 'Critical Race Theory,' Republicans Rattle American Schools

Still, he acknowledged that Republicans had “figured out how to message this.”

The messaging goes back to Mr. Trump, who, in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign, announced the formation of the 1776 Commission, set up explicitly to link what he said was “left-wing indoctrination” in schools to the sometimes violent protests over police killings.

A report by the commission was derided by mainstream historians; Mr. Biden canceled the project on his first day in office, but its impact endures on the right.

Media Matters for America, a liberal group, documented a surge of negative coverage of critical race theory by Fox News beginning in mid-2020 and spiking in April, with 235 mentions. And the Pew Research Center found last year that Americans were deeply divided over their perceptions of racial discrimination. Over 60 percent of conservatives said it was a bigger problem that people see discrimination where it does not exist, rather than ignoring discrimination that really does exist. Only 9 percent of liberals agreed.

Some Democratic strategists said the issue was a political liability for their party. Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, recently wrote, “The steady march of ‘anti-racist’ ideology” into school curriculums “will generate a backlash among normie parents.”

In an interview, he criticized leading Democrats for not calling out critical race theory because of their fear that “it will bring down the wrath of the woker elements of the party.”

In Loudoun County, Va., dueling parent groups are squaring off, one that calls itself “anti-racist” and the other opposed to what it sees as the creep of critical race theory in the school district, which enrolls 81,000 students from a rapidly diversifying region outside Washington.

After a 2019 report found a racial achievement gap, disproportionate discipline meted out to Black and Hispanic students, and the common use of racial slurs in schools, administrators adopted a “plan to combat systemic racism.” It calls for mandatory teacher training in “systemic oppression and implicit bias.”

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Senate Republicans block invoice to probe Capitol revolt

Senate Republicans block bill to probe Capitol insurrection

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks after the Republican Senate lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington Jan.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a bill that would set up an independent commission to investigate the January 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol as Democrats and the GOP argue over how best to investigate the legislature attack and another attack on the democratic process can be prevented.

With 54 to 35 votes, the measure did not reach the threshold required to overcome a filibuster, as almost all GOP senators were against it. Six Republicans voted to move the proposal forward: Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Rob Portman from Ohio, Mitt Romney from Utah and Ben Sasse from Nebraska. All of these senators, with the exception of Portman, voted in February to hold former President Donald Trump guilty of inciting a riot.

The vote likely undermines the creation of a Democratic panel, and some Republicans have said it is important to understand what led to the violent attempt to disrupt the transfer of power to President Joe Biden. GOP leaders have claimed the commission could redouble existing efforts by the Department of Justice and Congressional committees to investigate the pro-Trump mob attack that resulted in five deaths, including that of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.

Sicknick’s mother met with a handful of Republican senators Thursday and urged them to support the commission.

Republicans have tried to divert attention from the uprising – to which Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories contributed – as they seek to regain control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. Top GOP lawmakers, particularly in the House of Representatives, have set themselves the goal of suppressing criticism of Trump, who remains the Republican Party’s most popular figure.

“Fear of or allegiance to Donald Trump, the Republican minority only prevented the American people from learning the full truth about January 6,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said after the vote.

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The Democratic-owned House of Representatives passed the bipartisan bill earlier this month with 252-175 votes. 35 Republicans supported it, while 175 GOP officials voted against. House Republican leaders pushed for resistance after Rep. John Katko, RN.Y. negotiated the deal with Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

The bill failed to win the Republican votes it needed to move forward in the evenly divided Senate after minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Urged his faction to oppose it.

“I will continue to support the real, serious work of our criminal justice system and our own Senate committees,” McConnell said Thursday before the vote. “And I will continue to urge my colleagues to oppose this superfluous shift if the Senate has to vote.”

The bill would set up a 10-person commission to study the factors that led to the uprising. The Democratic and Republican leaders would each appoint half of the members who could not be current government officials.

The subpoenaed panel would report on its investigation by the end of the year.

Schumer urged senators Thursday to back the commission law, saying the country must eradicate belief in Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that widespread fraud led to his defeat in November. He called the lies a “cancer” in the GOP.

“We have to investigate, uncover and report the truth,” he said. “We need to make a trustworthy record of what really happened on January 6th and what happened before that. That is exactly what this commission is supposed to do, non-partisan and right down the middle.”

At least one senior Republican in the Senate has suggested that the panel would detract from the party’s mid-term messages. John Thune, RS.D., said earlier this month, “Anything that makes us rewarm the 2020 elections is, in my opinion, a day where we don’t contrast ourselves with the very radical left-wing Democrats’ agenda can.” “

Senator Joe Manchin, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, has repeatedly called on Republicans to vote in favor of setting up the commission. However, the West Virginia senator said he still would not team up with most of his Democratic counterparts to get rid of the filibuster that would allow the party to pass the bill on its own.

Biden, whose takeover of the presidency the pro-Trump mob sought to disrupt, scoffed Thursday at the prospect of senators voting against the commission’s establishment.

“I can’t imagine anyone voting against setting up a commission for the biggest attack on the Capitol since the Civil War,” he said.

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Health

Republicans name for Fauci’s termination over shifting place on Wuhan lab funding

Republicans call for Fauci's termination over shifting position on Wuhan lab funding

Dr. Anthony Fauci is facing increasing calls from Republican lawmakers for his termination over what they say is a shift in his position on whether the U.S. government funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the White House, told lawmakers Tuesday that the National Institutes of Health funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology through the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance with $600,000 over a period of five years. Funding to the nonprofit was eventually halted by the NIH.

He denied that the funding was specifically used for so-called gain of function research, which is altering a virus to make it either more transmissible or deadly to better predict new pathogens and ways to fight them.

On Wednesday during a Senate hearing, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., further questioned Fauci’s faith in the Wuhan lab’s scientists. “How do you know they didn’t lie to you and use the money for gain of function research anyway?” Kennedy asked Fauci.

Fauci said there was no way to guarantee that the scientists and grantees did not lie. “You never know,” he said.

He added that scientists at the lab are “trustworthy” and that he would expect they complied with the conditions of the grant, which was to study the transmission of coronaviruses from bats to humans to better understand the SARS-CoV-1 epidemic in the early 2000s.

“I don’t have enough insight into the Communist Party in China to know the interactions between them and the scientists,” Fauci said when asked whether the Chinese government influences its scientists. He also said he has no way of knowing the influence of the Chinese government on the World Health Organization after Kennedy implied that the WHO is in the pocket of the Chinese government.

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he has ordered a closer intelligence review of what he said were two equally plausible scenarios of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic — that it originated in a lab or from an animal. The director of national intelligence previously agreed that the two scenarios are equally likely.

Biden revealed that he tasked the intelligence community earlier this year with preparing “a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of Covid-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”

“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” Biden said in a statement.

Federal health officials maintain that it is more likely that the virus has a natural origin, but do not exclude a lab leak as a possibility.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, recently introduced the Fauci Incompetence Requires Early Dismissal Act, which called for Fauci’s termination.

“Dr. Fauci represents everything that President Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address: the scientific-technical elite steering the country toward their own ends,” Davidson said in a statement.

The Republican lawmakers also said they believe Fauci misled the American people early in the pandemic in regard to mask guidance. Fauci said in early March 2020: “Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks.” He later clarified he meant that masks should be prioritized for health workers, but Republican lawmakers maintain that Fauci lied.

GOP lawmakers also claim that Fauci misled Americans when he said there would be an explosion of coronavirus cases after Texas lifted its mask mandate.

“It is long past time for Dr. Fauci to stop talking to the American public. Fauci should resign or be fired immediately,” said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa.

Correction: Warren Davidson, R.-Ohio, is a member of the House of Representatives. An earlier version misstated his title.

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Texas Voting Invoice Nears Passage as Republicans Advance It

Texas Voting Bill Nears Passage as Republicans Advance It

In a statement on Saturday, President Biden called the proposed bill, along with similar measures in Georgia and Florida, “an attack on democracy” that disproportionately targeted “black and brown Americans”. He called on lawmakers to resolve the problem by passing democratic voting laws pending in Congress.

“It’s wrong and un-American,” said Mr. Biden. “In the 21st century, we should make it easier, not harder, for everyone eligible to vote to vote.”

Republican lawmakers have often cited voter concerns about electoral fraud – fears fueled by Trump, other Republicans, and the conservative media – to justify new election restrictions, despite no evidence of widespread fraud in the recent American election.

And in their campaign, Republicans have overcome objections from Democrats, constituencies, and big corporations. Companies like American Airlines, Dell Technologies and Microsoft spoke out against Texan law soon after the law was passed, but the pressure has so far been largely ineffective.

The final 67-page bill, known as SB 7, turned out to be the amalgamation of two bulk votes that had worked their way through state legislation. It contained many of the provisions originally put in place by the Republicans, but lawmakers dropped some of the strictest, such as an ordinance on the allocation of voting machines that would have closed polling stations in color communities, and a measure that would have allowed partisan election observers to record the voting process on video.

However, the bill contains a provision that could make it easier to overthrow an election. Texas electoral law found that reversing election results due to fraud allegations required evidence that illegal votes had indeed resulted in an illegitimate victory. If the bill is passed, the number of fraudulent votes required to do so should simply be equal to the difference in the winning votes. It wouldn’t matter who the fraudulent votes were cast for.

Democrats and constituencies were quick to condemn the bill.

“SB 7 is a ruthless law,” said Sarah Labowitz, director of politics and advocacy for the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas. “It is aimed at color voters and voters with disabilities in a state that is already the most difficult voting place in the country.”

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Texas Republicans Finalize One of many Nation’s Strictest Voting Payments

Texas Republicans Finalize One of the Nation’s Strictest Voting Bills

Republican state lawmakers have often cited voters’ worries about election fraud — fears stoked by Mr. Trump, other Republicans and the conservative media — to justify new voting restrictions, despite the fact that there has been no evidence of widespread fraud in recent American elections.

And in their election push, Republicans have powered past the objections of Democrats, voting rights groups and major corporations. Companies like American Airlines, Dell Technologies and Microsoft spoke out against the Texas Legislation soon after the bill was introduced, but the pressure has been largely ineffective so far.

The final 67-page bill, known as S.B. 7, proved to be an amalgamation of two omnibus voting bills that had worked their way through the state’s Legislature. It included many of the provisions originally introduced by Republicans, but lawmakers dropped some of the most stringent ones, like a regulation on the allocation of voting machines that would have led to the closure of polling places in communities of color and a measure that would have permitted partisan poll watchers to record the voting process on video.

Still, the bill includes a provision that could make overturning an election easier. Previously, Texas election law had stated that reversing the results of an election because of fraud accusations required proving that illicit votes had actually resulted in a wrongful victory. If the bill passes, the number of fraudulent votes required to do so would simply need to be equal to the winning vote differential; it would not matter for whom the fraudulent votes had been cast.

Democrats and voting rights groups were quick to condemn the bill.

“S.B. 7 is a ruthless piece of legislation,” said Sarah Labowitz, the policy and advocacy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. “It targets voters of color and voters with disabilities, in a state that’s already the most difficult place to vote in the country.”

But Republicans celebrated the proposed law, and bristled at the criticism from Mr. Biden and others.

“As the White House and national Democrats work together to minimize election integrity, the Texas Legislature continues to fight for accessible and secure elections,” State Senator Bryan Hughes, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement. “In Texas, we do not bend to headlines, corporate virtue signaling, or suppression of election integrity, even if it comes from the president of the United States.”

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Foster Friess, Massive Donor to Republicans, Dies at 81

Foster Friess, Big Donor to Republicans, Dies at 81

Foster Friess, a Wyoming businessman who founded an investment firm, made a fortune and gave a lot of it away to Republican presidential candidates and charities, sometimes with flair, died on Thursday in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 81.

His organization, Foster’s Outriders, which confirmed the death, said he had been receiving care at the Mayo Clinic there for myelodysplastic syndrome, a disorder of the blood cells and bone marrow.

On Twitter, Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming, who defeated Mr. Friess in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2018, called Mr. Friess “a strong and steady voice for Republican and Christian values.”

Mr. Friess’s run for governor was his only try at major elected office. In the political arena he was primarily known for his donations, particularly to the presidential bids of Rick Santorum, the former United States senator from Pennsylvania, in the 2012 and 2016 campaigns. After Mr. Santorum left the 2016 race, Mr. Friess became one of the first Republican megadonors to embrace Donald J. Trump.

But to many, the most important support that Mr. Friess, an evangelical Christian, and his wife, Lynnette, provided was to charities. Foster’s Outriders and the Lynn and Foster Friess Family Foundation have provided scholarships, financed work for homeless people, supported water projects in Africa and much more. His organization said Mr. Friess had donated $500 million in his lifetime.

His 70th-birthday party in 2010 in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where he lived much of the year, was the stuff of legend. The website wyofile.com described it in 2011:

“In the invitations to the party, Friess, a born-again Christian, had asked the guests to identify their favorite charity that reflected the values of his favorite quote from Galatians: ‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.’ He vowed to give $70,000 to the most worthy nominee.”

When the time came to announce the winner, the servers at the Four Seasons Resort, where the party was being held, distributed envelopes to the guests.

“Friess asked the lucky winner to stand up and shout, and for the other guests to remain seated,” the account continued. “Then he sat back and waited for the mayhem.”

As people opened the envelopes, someone at every table stood and shouted, “I won!” He had funded every request, at a cost of $7.7 million.

Foster Stephen Friess was born on April 2, 1940, in Rice Lake, Wis. His father, Albert, was a cattle rancher, and his mother, Ethel (Foster) Friess, was a homemaker.

“I came from nothing,” he told The New York Times in 2018 during his campaign for governor when asked if he himself might be considered one of the “elites” he was railing against. “My mom dropped out of school in eighth grade to pick cotton and save the family farm. My dad had a high school education.”

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a degree in business administration and served in the Army as an intelligence officer for a guided-missile brigade at Fort Bliss in Texas.

After working in finance for several years, he founded the investment management firm Friess Associates in 1974 and was soon regarded as a first-rate stock picker. His flagship asset, the Brandywine Fund, swelled to more than $15 billion. He sold a controlling interest in Friess Associates to the Affiliated Managers Group in 2001.

On the political side, Mr. Friess did more than support candidates. In 2010, he was a founding investor in The Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel’s conservative news and opinion website.

In 2012 Mr. Friess supported Mr. Santorum not so much because he agreed with all his policies — “I try to talk him out of them,” he told the broadcaster Lou Dobbs in February 2012 — but because he thought the Republican Party needed a new face.

“These old veteran war horses, they have a hard time making it,” he said on “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” “Dole couldn’t make it, McCain couldn’t make it. On the Democratic side, Gore couldn’t make it and Kerry couldn’t make it. So the Democrats bring these fresh faces, they bring Carter from out of nowhere, they bring Clinton from out of nowhere, they bring Obama from beyond nowhere.”

Later that month Mr. Friess made headlines when, on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell asked him whether Mr. Santorum’s statements on “the dangers of contraception” would hurt his campaign.

“Back in my days,” Mr. Friess said, “they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”

Mr. Santorum’s primary campaign started strong but foundered, and Mr. Obama was elected to a second term, defeating Mitt Romney.

In the next presidential campaign, Mr. Friess also supported Mr. Santorum initially. In mid-2015, with the Republican field choked with candidates and the nastiness level increasing, he called on the candidates not to “drift off the civility reservation.”

In May 2016, with Mr. Santorum out of the race and Mr. Trump having secured the Republican nomination, Mr. Friess threw his support to the Trump cause, though acknowledging that Mr. Trump had advanced by showing the very incivility he had decried — something he expected would change to a more presidential tenor.

“Donald’s strategy seems to work,” Mr. Friess told CNN that month, “but I’m convinced he’s going to shift.”

Mr. Friess supported Mr. Trump throughout his administration, and when he ran for governor, the Trump family tried to return the favor — the president’s son Donald Jr. endorsed him in an opinion article in The Star Tribune of Casper, Wyo. President Trump himself was quieter, although he did offer a Twitter post late in the campaign endorsing Mr. Friess. Mr. Gordon’s victory was cited by some of as evidence of Mr. Trump’s vulnerability, though others saw it more as a local matter.

Three weeks ago, when Darin Smith, a lawyer and businessman who has contended that Mr. Trump “probably” won the 2020 election, announced that he would challenge Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, who has been critical of Mr. Trump, in the 2022 primaries, he said that Mr. Friess would be his campaign chairman.

Mr. Friess’s wife of 58 years, Lynnette Estes Friess, survives him, as do their four children, Traci, Stephen, Carrie, and Michael; a brother, Herman; and 15 grandchildren.

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Foster Friess, Huge Donor to Republicans, Dies at 81

Foster Friess, Big Donor to Republicans, Dies at 81

Foster Friess, a Wyoming businessman who started an investment firm, made a fortune, and gave much of it to Republican presidential candidates and charities, sometimes with flair, died Thursday in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 81 years old.

His organization, Foster’s Outriders, which confirmed the death, said he had been treated at the Mayo Clinic there for myelodysplastic syndrome, a disorder of blood cells and bone marrow.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, who defeated Mr. Friess in Republican Governor’s Elementary School in 2018 and wrote on Twitter, described Mr. Friess as “a strong and consistent voice for Republican and Christian values.”

Mr. Friess’ election as governor was his only attempt in an important elected office. In politics he was best known for his donations, particularly for the presidential offers from Rick Santorum, the former United States Senator from Pennsylvania, in the 2012 and 2016 campaigns. After Mr. Santorum left the 2016 race, Mr. Friess was one of the first Republican megadonors to hug Donald J. Trump.

For many, the main support that Mr. Friess, a Protestant Christian, and his wife Lynnette gave was charities. Foster’s Outriders and the Lynn and Foster Friess Family Foundation have given grants, funded work for the homeless, supported water projects in Africa, and much more. His organization said Mr. Friess donated $ 500 million in his lifetime.

His 70th birthday party in 2010 in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Where he lived for much of the year, was legendary. The website wyofile.com described it.

“In the invitations to the party, Friess, a born again Christian, asked guests to identify their favorite charity, which reflected the values ​​of his favorite Galatian quote: ‘Bear each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ “wrote it in 2011.” He vowed to give $ 70,000 to the most worthy candidate. “

When the time came to announce the winner, the waiters at the Four Seasons Resort where the party was taking place distributed envelopes to guests.

“Friess asked the lucky winner to stand up and scream and leave the other guests,” the report continued. “Then he leaned back and waited for the chaos.”

When people opened the envelopes, someone was standing at each table shouting, “I won!” He had funded each request at a cost of $ 7.7 million.

Foster Stephen Friess was born on April 2, 1940 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. His father Albert was a cattle breeder and his mother Ethel (Foster) Friess was a housewife.

“I came out of nowhere,” he told the New York Times in 2018 during his campaign for the governor when asked if he could be seen as one of the “elites” he railed against. “My mother dropped out of school in eighth grade to pick cotton and save the family farm. My father had a high school education. “

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a degree in business administration and served in the Army as an intelligence officer for a guided missile brigade at Fort Bliss, Texas.

After working in finance for several years, he founded the investment management company Friess Associates in 1974 and was soon recognized as a top stock picker. Its flagship product, the Brandywine Fund, rose to over $ 15 billion. In 2001 he sold a majority stake in Friess Associates to the Affiliated Managers Group.

On the political side, Mr. Friess supported more than just candidates. In 2010 he was a founding investor in the conservative news and opinion website of The Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel.

In 2012, Mr Friess supported Mr Santorum not so much because he agreed to all of his policies – “I’m trying to dissuade him,” he told Lou Dobbs in February 2012 – but because he thought the Republican Party needed a new one Face.

“These old veteran warhorses are having a hard time making it,” he said on Lou Dobbs Tonight. “Dole couldn’t do it, McCain couldn’t do it. On the Democratic side, Gore couldn’t do it, and Kerry couldn’t do it. So the Democrats bring these fresh faces, they bring Carter out of nowhere, they bring Clinton out of nowhere, they bring Obama out of nowhere. “

Later that month, Mr. Friess made headlines when Andrea Mitchell asked him on MSNBC whether Mr. Santorum’s statements about “the dangers of contraception” would harm his campaign.

“Back then,” said Friess, “they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The girls put it between their knees and it wasn’t that expensive. “

Mr Santorum’s main campaign started strong but failed, and Mr Obama was elected to a second term, defeating Mitt Romney.

In the next presidential campaign, Mr. Friess initially also supported Mr. Santorum. In mid-2015, when the Republican field was overflowing with candidates and meanness increased, he urged candidates “not to deviate from the reservation of courtesy”.

In May 2016, after Mr Santorum was out of the running and Mr Trump secured the Republican nomination, Mr Friess backed the Trump cause but admitted that Mr Trump had made progress by showing the incivility he condemned had – something he expected would turn into a tenor of the President.

“Donald’s strategy seems to be working,” Friess told CNN earlier this month, “but I’m convinced it will change.”

Mr. Friess supported Mr. Trump throughout his tenure, and when he ran for governor, the Trump family tried to return the favor – the President’s son, Donald Jr., confirmed him in an opinion piece in the Star Tribune of Casper, Wyo . President Trump himself was quieter, despite offering a Twitter post late in the campaign in which he supported Mr. Friess. Mr Gordon’s victory was cited by some as evidence of Mr Trump’s vulnerability, while others viewed it as a more local issue.

Three weeks ago, when Darin Smith, a lawyer and businessman who claimed that Mr. Trump “likely” won the 2020 election, announced that he was challenging Rep, Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, who has criticized Mr. Trump In the 2022 primaries, he said Mr. Friess would be his campaign chairman.

The 58-year-old wife of Mr. Friess, Lynnette Estes Friess, survived him as did her four children Traci, Stephen, Carrie and Michael. a brother, Herman; and 15 grandchildren.

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Biden infrastructure plan: Senate Republicans make counteroffer

Biden infrastructure plan: Senate Republicans make counteroffer

Senate Republicans unveiled their $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer to President Joe Biden on Thursday, as the sides see whether they can bridge an ideological gulf to strike a bipartisan deal.

The plan includes:

  • $506 billion for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects, including $4 billion for electric vehicles
  • $98 billion for public transit
  • $72 billion for water systems
  • $65 billion for broadband
  • $56 billion for airports
  • $46 billion for passenger and freight rail systems
  • $22 billion for ports and waterways
  • $22 billion for water storage
  • $21 billion for safety efforts
  • $20 billion for infrastructure financing

Biden’s latest offer to Republicans came in at $1.7 trillion — $600 billion less than his original plan. He has urged the GOP to put at least $1 trillion into an infrastructure package.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the senators’ offer.

Republicans and the White House have moved closer to agreement on an infrastructure plan but still need to resolve fundamental issues about the scope of a package and how to pay for it, a GOP senator leading the effort said Thursday. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said the sides are “inching closer” in negotiations ahead of Memorial Day, the date by which the White House wanted to see progress in bipartisan talks.

“We’re still talking. I’m optimistic, we still have a big gap,” Capito told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I think where we’re really falling short is we can’t seem to get the White House to agree on a definition or a scope of infrastructure that matches where we think it is, and that’s physical, core infrastructure.”

“The White House is still bringing their human infrastructure into this package and that’s just a nonstarter for us,” she continued, referencing Biden’s plans to put money into programs including care for elderly and disabled Americans.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) asks questions during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to examine the FY 2022 budget request for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, May 19, 2021.

Greg Nash | Pool | Reuters

It is unclear if the two parties can overcome broad ideological differences over what constitutes infrastructure, and how to pay for improvements to it, to strike a bipartisan deal. If negotiations do not show promise, Democrats will have to decide whether to try to pass an infrastructure bill on their own using special budget rules.

The process would bring its own headaches, as Senate Democrats would have to both keep all 50 members of their caucus on board and comply with strict rules about what can go into a budget reconciliation bill.

Republicans have said they do not want to raise taxes to cover the costs of improving transportation, broadband and water systems. Biden has called to hike the corporate tax rate from 21% — the level set by the GOP after it cut taxes in 2017 — to at least 25%.

“We can do this without touching … those tax cuts,” Capito told CNBC.

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She mentioned that lawmakers could redirect unused coronavirus relief funds to state and local governments to infrastructure, or implement user fees on transportation like electric vehicles. Those Republican solutions could put Biden in a bind.

The president has promised not to raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $400,000 per year. User fees or an increase to the gas tax would put an extra burden on many Americans whose incomes falls under the threshold.

Capito said she sees the potential for bipartisan agreement on transportation spending. She noted that the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee — where she sits as ranking member — advanced a roughly $300 billion surface transportation bill that she thinks could guide a broader infrastructure deal.

In trimming his original $2.3 trillion plan, Biden cut out funding for research and development and supply chain enhancements. He also reduced proposed spending on broadband, roads and bridges.

Biden did not cut down the proposed $400 billion for home-based health care. Republicans have criticized that spending as part of an infrastructure package.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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Capito, Senate Republicans to ship counteroffer

Capito, Senate Republicans to send counteroffer

Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, left, speaks as Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, center, and Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, listen during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 22, 2021.

Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A group of Senate Republicans plans to send President Joe Biden an infrastructure counteroffer this week as the sides consider whether they can bridge an ideological gulf to craft a bipartisan bill.

The proposal could cost nearly $1 trillion, and Republicans aim to offset the spending without increasing taxes. The group of GOP lawmakers aims to deliver the plan as soon as Thursday morning.

Hopes for an agreement between the parties to revamp U.S. transportation and broadband appeared to dim last week. After the White House cut its infrastructure offer to $1.7 trillion from $2.3 trillion, an aide to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said the plan’s price tag was “well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support.”

The Republican group initially put out a $568 billion infrastructure framework last month.

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Democrats will have to decide whether they want to chop up their plan enough to win Republican votes, or try to forge ahead on their own using special budget rules. It is unclear if they would consider passing parts of the proposal with GOP support, then moving to approve other pieces on their own.

The Biden administration has said it wants to see whether it can make progress in bipartisan infrastructure talks before Memorial Day.

Asked after a meeting of the Republicans leading the infrastructure effort if this week’s offer would be the GOP’s last, Capito said she would wait to see how the White House reacted to it. She noted that bipartisan plans that could become part of a broader infrastructure package — including a roughly $300 billion surface transportation bill she helped to craft as ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee — are working their way through congressional panels.

“I think that we’ve got good momentum, but we’ll see what [the White House’s] reaction is,” Capito said Tuesday.

The parties need to resolve fundamental issues to come to an accord on infrastructure, one of Biden’s top priorities in the White House. They have disagreed on what should count as infrastructure, as Democrats push for a bill to include policies including care for elderly and disabled Americans.

Biden also wants to pay for the legislation through tax increases on corporations. Republicans have opposed any effort to hike the corporate rate, set at 21% after the 2017 GOP tax cuts.

“We’re not going to have any votes at all to tamper with the 2017 tax bill,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said Tuesday.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Tuesday suggested using money already approved by Congress but not yet spent. While he did not specify which funds he thinks lawmakers could repurpose, some Republicans have previously suggested using state and local government aid approved as part of coronavirus relief bills.

After Biden met with six Republican senators earlier this month, the sides expressed hope about striking an infrastructure deal. However, an aide to Capito said the administration and Republicans seemed “further apart” after senators met with Biden’s staff.

Capito said the Republicans would be open to meeting with Biden again.

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