Trump’s Gop Kingmaker Status Is On The Line As Some Endorsees Struggle In Polls

If you were to lay out in one place the Bush family’s contributions over the last half century, it would not be a particularly balanced ledger. In one column, you’d have PEPFAR; birth control; good reflexes; and one very succinct distillation of Donald Trump’s inaugural address. In the other: the never-ending War on Terror; two wars with Iraq; Iran-Contra; torture; war crimes; Clarence Thomas; Samuel Alito; same-sex marriage bans; tax cuts for rich people; illegal surveillance; global warming; the AIDS epidemic in the US; private equity; the Department of Homeland Security; air pollution; the Florida Recount; Terri Schiavo; “school choice”; the bungled Hurricane Katrina response; the savings and loan scandal; the Great Recession; Willie Horton; the War on Drugs; and the Texas Rangers’ baseball stadium.

In a brief address Tuesday night, following the senseless massacre of at least 18 children and a teacher at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, a beleaguered Joe Biden asked the nation “when in God’s name” America would stand up to the gun lobby. He mourned “beautiful, innocent, second, third, fourth graders” and spoke of the scores of children at the school who saw their friends “die as if they are on the battlefield.” Biden also spoke as an adult who has lost children himself. “To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away,” he said.

In a rebuke of Donald Trump and his wild lies about the 2020 election, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp crushed his challenger, David Perdue, in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary. Kemp needed to secure more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a June run-off. Numerous news outlets projected that the incumbent would easily clear that bar, and Perdue reportedly called him to concede.

Herschel Walker, a former star running back whose actual political stances are ill-defined to nonexistent, has secured the primary nomination for Republican senator in Georgia, according to multiple outlets. Walker is a divisive figure, even among conservatives. While former President Donald Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S. C.) encouraged him to run for office, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was once so concerned with Walker’s candidacy that he suggested that ousted Republican Sens.

At least 18 children and one teacher were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, according to reporting from multiple outlets. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed the news. The school teaches second through fourth grades. It was the second-to-last day of school before summer break was set for Thursday. At a press conference, Abbott said the suspect is an 18-year-old high school student who, police believe, worked alone.

Former President Donald Trump’s long contempt of court saga is over, for now, with attorneys for New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who is conducting a civil fraud investigation into Trump’s business practices, confirming that Trump paid $110,000 in fines to escrow account last week. James’ investigation centers on whether or not Trump and his company intentionally inflated the value of some of his assets to get better deals from banks and insurance companies and low-balled estimates on the same properties when it came time to pay taxes.