Boosted By Out-Of-State Dark Money, Alaska’s Ranked-Choice Voting System Is Here To Stay
A 2024 ballot initiative seeking to repeal Alaska's ranked-choice voting system was narrowly defeated by 664 votes.A 2024 ballot initiative seeking to repeal Alaska's ranked-choice voting system was narrowly defeated by 664 votes.Trump launches pressure campaign on Senate Republicans to get Gaetz confirmed
President-elect Donald Trump has begun applying pressure to Republican senators in an attempt to ensure his Cabinet picks get confirmed.
In the past two weeks, Trump has announced over a dozen nominations to various Cabinet and federal positions, most notably tapping Republican former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida for attorney general. Although his candidates have the wholehearted support of the president-elect, the Trump transition team is doing the legwork to ensure Gaetz gets confirmed.
'They want someone who's gonna shake up Washington, D.C.'
Republicans took back the Senate majority this election cycle, flipping seats in West Virginia, Montana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If Trump's nominees were to be confirmed during the next Congress, they would be able to afford to lose only three Republican votes, assuming that Vice President-elect JD Vance would also weigh in.
This leaves little wiggle room for nominees like Gaetz, prompting Trump's pressure campaign to secure GOP Senate votes.
Several senators have already expressed skepticism about Gaetz. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said Gaetz was not a "serious nomination" and said she was "shocked" by the pick.
There has been a mounting effort, particularly from Vance, to persuade GOP senators who may have reservations about Trump's nominees. Earlier on Wednesday, Vance was spotted ushering Gaetz and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida around Capitol Hill, making their pitch to senators in the form of phone calls and closed-door meetings. Trump has reportedly even placed some of these calls himself to ensure Gaetz is confirmed.
These efforts have paid off in some respects. Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma came out in support of Gaetz despite historically being a critic of the nominee.
"I think the president wants a hammer at the DOJ, and he sees Matt Gaetz as a hammer," Mullin said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday.
"His picks have been maybe unconventional, but we hired an unconventional president," Mullin continued. "The American people wanted that. They don't want politics as usual. They want someone who's gonna shake up Washington, D.C."
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, a Trump ally, warned his own conference about voting against nominees like Gaetz.
"Republicans: If you're not on the team, get out of the way," Tuberville said following Gaetz's nomination.
“If you want to get in the way, fine," Tuberville continued. "But we’re gonna try to get you out of the Senate too if you try to do that."
The Trump transition team is facing an uphill battle with some of its nominees, but that has not deterred the president-elect.
Trump was asked by a reporter at Tuesday's SpaceX launch in Texas about whether he was reconsidering Gaetz's nomination.
Trump's one-word answer was, "No."
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Everything You Need To Know About Ranked-Choice Voting And Its Glaring Problems
Ranked-choice voting is a scheme strategically used by left-wing groups to undermine conservative candidates.7 GOP senators join Democrats in confirming Biden judicial nominee
Seven Republican senators joined with Democrats and independents on Tuesday in voting to confirm President Joe Biden's nomination of Judge Tanya Monique Jones Bosier to serve as an associate judge on the Superior Court of D.C.
Lawmakers voted 57-41 in favor of confirmation, with all 41 of the opposing votes coming from Republicans.
'In DC it's business as usual.'
The seven GOP senators who voted to confirm included Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
"The GOP nominee was convicted in a kangaroo court Thursday. Just 5 days later AT THEIR FIRST CHANCE Sens. @LindseyGrahamSC @SenatorRounds @SenatorLankford @SenThomTillis voted yes on ANOTHER Biden judicial nominee. They won't stop Democrat Lawfare. In DC it's business as usual," Blaze Media's Christopher Bedford tweeted.
"Democrats didn't need these Republicans to confirm their judge. They didn't need @lisamurkowski @MittRomney @SenatorCollins either. These senators are simply adding their seals of approval. Even a controlled opposition at least pretends to oppose. There are no excuses," he added.
Last week, a jury found former President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, guilty on all counts in a New York criminal trial.
Some GOP senators signed onto a pledge that declares, in part, that they will not vote to confirm any Biden administration political and judicial nominees.
"The White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways. As a Senate Republican conference, we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart. To that end, we will not 1) allow any increase to non-security related funding for this administration, or any appropriations bill which funds partisan lawfare; 2) vote to confirm this administration's political and judicial appointees; and 3) allow expedited consideration and passage of Democrat legislation or authorities that are not directly relevant to the safety of the American people," the pledge declares.
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Watch: Physical confrontation ensues after climate change protesters storm stage at gala honoring Sen. Lisa Murkowski
There was a physical confrontation when climate change protesters stormed the stage at a gala honoring Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Murkowski was giving a speech at the Bryce Harlow Foundation’s awards ceremony on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Suddenly, about a dozen climate change activists stormed the stage. The climate change protesters were fought off by people on the stage. The protesters are seen on video tumbling off the stage. Murkowski is seen slowly walking away as the physical confrontation ensues.
The protesters are part of a climate crisis alarmist group called Climate Defiance.
Climate Defiance declared on social media, "We just shut down a gala honoring U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski is a murderer. She incinerates us to enrich her cronies. As Chevron's top lobbyist gave her an award, we stepped in and stopped the ceremony. Respect us or expect us."
The group added, "Murkowski brands herself as a moderate but in truth she is an ecocidal pyromaniac. She fought tooth and nail to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to big oil. Is nothing sacred?”
Murkowski finished her speech after the protesters were removed from the event.
The video of the climate crisis activists storming the stage has been viewed more than 4 million times.
— (@)
The D.C.-based climate change organization declares: "We do not do petitions. We do direct action. If people in power will not save us we will save ourselves. There is no choice."
The group believes that "conventional tactics will not suffice."
Climate Defiance has a mission of ending fossil fuel extraction on federal lands, deploying "disruptive direct action to compel politicians," and standing in solidarity with "sister-struggles for racial and economic justice."
Climate Defiance protesters have disrupted events involving Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
The Biden administration rewarded the antagonist group by inviting them to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden's senior clean energy czar John Podesta in December.
Climate Defiance said of the meeting, "Thank you for taking the time to meet with us today. We appreciate your willingness to heed our deeply-held concerns. Echoing the voices of millions of Americans, we write to you in the eleventh hour of the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced: planetary and societal collapse due to the continued burning of fossil fuels."
Climate protesters tumble off stage during scuffle at Senator Lisa Murkowski’s event in Washington youtube.com
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Alaska man threatened to hunt down Lisa Murkowski, skin the senator, wear her flesh 'like clothes': Feds
An Alaska man threatened to skin a Republican senator and wear her flesh "like clothes," according to federal authorities.
Arther Charles Graham – from Kenai, Alaska – was arrested on Monday. Graham, 46, was charged with knowingly and willfully transmitting interstate and foreign commerce communications containing a threat to kidnap and injure a United States senator.
On Sept. 28, Graham is accused of sending a threatening email to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) through the senator's website.
"Until I get new information [United States Senator 1], my plan is ima' hunt you down, cut the flesh off your body and wear your skin like clothes," according to a federal complaint unsealed this week. "I'll live inside of YOU [United States Senator 1]."
In the email, Graham allegedly said that he was being evicted and he was "in the dark here."
Graham reportedly said he "ain't got nowhere else to live" and that he would "inevitably become a homeless person" like when he was a "little boy."
He allegedly added, "Also, I'm gonna cut off your skin and wear it as clothes. Oops I said that already. Someone call the police."
Congressional staff members notified the United States Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section on Oct. 3.
On Oct. 10, FBI special agents interviewed Graham at his home in Kenai, Alaska.
FBI agents said that Graham confessed to sending the threatening emails to Murkowski. Graham told the agents that he knew that sending the message was against the law, according to the criminal complaint.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Murkowski was the target of another murder threat. In April 2022, Jay Allen Johnson was sentenced to 32 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty to two counts of threatening to murder Alaska’s two U.S. senators.
Johnson, 65 and from Alaska, threatened to murder Republican Sens. Murkowski and Dan Sullivan. He left 17 threatening voicemails for Alaska's two U.S. senators over a five-month period, according to court documents.
The Department of Justice stated:
On September 2, 2021, Johnson left a voicemail at the Washington D.C. office of Senator Lisa Murkowski containing several threats, including a threat to "burn" the Senator’s properties. Johnson then asked if the Senator knew what a .50 caliber shell "does to a human head." On September 29, Johnson left another voicemail threatening to hire an assassin to kill the U.S. Senator. Johnson also left threatening voicemail messages for Senator Dan Sullivan between April 2021 and September 2021, including one in which he threatened to get his “.50 caliber out,” hold a “GoFundMe page for the …shells,” and to come “with a vengeance mother****er.”
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