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Tag: 2024
October 26, 2023
William Upton
Politics

Former US Senate Candidate Blake Masters Running For Congress in Arizona’s 8th.

Venture capitalist and former U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters has announced he intends to seek the Republican nomination for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. The deeply conservative Arizona seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is currently held by Rep. Debbie Lesko, a Republican, who has announced she will retire at the end of her term.

Prior to entering politics, Masters was a close colleague of billionaire tech-entrepreneur Peter Thiel. Masters served as the president of the Thiel Foundation and as the chief operating office for Thiel’s investment operation, Thiel Capital.

Masters won a divisive Republican primary for one of Arizona’s U.S. Senate seats in 2022, despite his opponents engaging in negative campaigns against him. Facing an uphill battle against popular incumbent Democrat Senator Mark Kelly, Masters received significant backing from both Thiel and former President Donald Trump. Masters ultimately lost to Sen. Kelly in the November general election. Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, is the husband of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords – who was nearly killed by a drug-addled, anti-Christian, anti-government conspiracy theorist named Jared Loughner at a campaign event in January of 2011. Six people attending the Giffords event were killed by Loughner.

Abe Hamadeh, the 2022 Republican candidate for Arizona Attorney General and a former prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, is also expected to enter the Republican primary to replace Congresswoman Lesko. Early polling on the race indicates it is currently a toss up. A National Public Affairs poll hows Hamadeh up over Masters 31 to 24 percent. Ben Toma, who serves as the Speaker of Arizona’s State House of Representatives, comes in third place with just 11 percent. However, a Masters campaign internal poll by Data Orbital shows Masters ahead of Hamadeh by 15 points, with 33 percent to Hamadeh’s 18. Toma again comes in third with just 7 percent support.

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Venture capitalist and former U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters has announced he intends to seek the Republican nomination for Arizona's 8th Congressional District. The deeply conservative Arizona seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is currently held by Rep. Debbie Lesko, a Republican, who has announced she will retire at the end of her term. show more
October 25, 2023
Jake Welch
Politics

Dean Phillips is Running Against Joe Biden. Who Is He?

Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips (D-MI) is preparing to announce his intentions to become the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee before the end of the week, opposing an uncontested primary election in President Biden‘s favor.

Phillips, who represents Minnesota’s Third District, has been vocal about the need for someone to challenge Biden in the run-up to 2024 due to the President’s age and a sense that the American electorate “is begging for alternatives” to the octogenarian.

The Congressman, who entered the House of Representatives as a multimillionaire businessman after founding an ice cream company, recently stepped down as Democratic Policy and Communications Caucus (DPCC) co-chair and has reportedly begun reaching out to potential staffers about working in New Hampshire. He also called the Granite State’s Democratic Party Chair, Ray Buckley, to introduce himself.

“My convictions relative to the 2024 presidential race are incongruent with the majority of my caucus, and I felt it appropriate to step aside from elected leadership to avoid unnecessary distractions during a critical time for our country,” Phillips argued while stepping down from his co-chair position.

He will become the second challenger to President Biden after author Marianne Williamson.

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Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips (D-MI) is preparing to announce his intentions to become the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee before the end of the week, opposing an uncontested primary election in President Biden's favor. show more
October 24, 2023
William Upton
Politics

Perry Johnson Drops from Prez Race, Endorses Trump.

Michigan businessman, and former Republican presidential candidate, Perry Johnson has announced he is backing former President Donald Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024. “After suspending my campaign for President on Friday, there is now only one candidate in this race who can provide a solution to our nation’s economic, foreign policy and social crises, and most importantly, beat Joe Biden at the ballot box,” Johnson said in a statement. “That person is Donald Trump.”

Despite achieving a degree of notoriety on social media, Johnson failed to meet Republican National Committee (RNC) dictated criteria for making either of the two Republican presidential debates held so far. Prior to the debates, the RNC set minimum requirements for fundraising and donor numbers – as well as polling – for candidates to meet in order to be allowed to participate. Despite claims from his campaign to the contrary, Johnson did not meet both the fundraising and polling sets of criteria.

Johnson was previously a Republican candidate in the 2022 Michigan gubernatorial race, but fell short after he failed to meet the necessary 15,000 signatory threshold to appear on the ballot. Officials at Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers discarded 6,983 of Johnson’s signatures under the suspicion that they were “fraudulent” – an action that Johnson claims violated his rights. He was one of five GOP candidates removed from the ballot that year.

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Michigan businessman, and former Republican presidential candidate, Perry Johnson has announced he is backing former President Donald Trump's bid to retake the White House in 2024. "After suspending my campaign for President on Friday, there is now only one candidate in this race who can provide a solution to our nation's economic, foreign policy and social crises, and most importantly, beat Joe Biden at the ballot box," Johnson said in a statement. "That person is Donald Trump." show more
October 23, 2023
William Upton
Politics

Contra to DeSantis’s Talking Points, Trump is THRASHING Biden Amongst Independents.

An average taken among polls conducted by established pollsters over September and October shows former President Trump holding a commanding seven point lead among independent voters over the Democrat incumbent, President Joe Biden. Established pollsters like the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia to Quinnipiac to ABC/Washington Post showed Trump leading Biden anywhere from 3-points to 15-points among independents.

The recent polling data disproves a key talking point pushed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Since announcing his presidential bid in May, DeSantis and campaign surrogates have repeatedly argued that former President Trump cannot win over independent voters, a key block of voters needed to defeat Joe Biden.

“At the end of the day, people do want to win, and you can’t win with just Republican voters. I think we showed in Florida that if you want a big victory you’ve got to win independent voters,” DeSantis said during a Fox News interview in July. “You’ve got to win people who haven’t voted for our party in the last several cycles. I’ve shown I can do that, and I think we can do it nationally.” DeSantis campaign spokeswoman and registered foreign agent for a top Zelensky ally, Christina Pushaw, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that even if Democrats or independents agree with some of Trump policy ideas, they still won’t vote for him.

Despite the DeSantis campaign’s insistence, polling continues to show independent voters flocking to Trump, who is by-and-far the likely Republican presidential nominee. On-the-other-hand, DeSantis himself has seen his numbers slide among independent voters, further undermining his already collapsing candidacy.

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An average taken among polls conducted by established pollsters over September and October shows former President Trump holding a commanding seven point lead among independent voters over the Democrat incumbent, President Joe Biden. Established pollsters like the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia to Quinnipiac to ABC/Washington Post showed Trump leading Biden anywhere from 3-points to 15-points among independents. show more
October 16, 2023
Jake Welch
News
Politics

RFK’s New Campaign Manager Is a CIA Agent.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. has replaced his presidential campaign manager, former Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, with his daughter-in-law, who also happens to be a Central Intelligence Service (CIA) agent.

Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, married to RFK‘s son of the same name, was announced as Kucinich’s replacement this weekend, after he suggested the campaign needed a “new direction.” Kucinich, who also ran for president on two occasions, had been RFK’s campaign manager since the latter announced his presidential run earlier this year.

“Amaryllis is a woman of extraordinary intelligence and drive who I am confident will take this campaign to the next level,” said RFK in a statement following the announcement.

Amaryllis spent a decade at the CIA working in the organization’s most elite and clandestine operations unit. Her memoir suggests she was deployed to 16 different countries as part of her goal of hunting some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.

Her writings, however, have been criticized as “grossly exaggerated” and “BS” by multiple senior CIA colleagues. William Murray, a CIA operations official, said: “You don’t go wandering around Karachi on your own… You’ll wind up in some warlord’s harem, or you’ll wind up dead.”

Amaryllis joins the senior campaign staff as RFK is coming under increased scrutiny from both sides following his decision to run as an independent in next year’s presidential election. Last week, RFK was left dumbfounded in an interview with Sean Hannity in which the latter bombarded the presidential candidate with questions exposing his liberal politics.

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Robert F Kennedy Jr. has replaced his presidential campaign manager, former Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, with his daughter-in-law, who also happens to be a Central Intelligence Service (CIA) agent. show more
October 11, 2023
Jake Welch
Media
News
Politics

WATCH: Hannity Brutalizes Dumbfounded RFK.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) was left startled in his latest interview with Sean Hannity after the Fox News host bombarded the newly declared Independent candidate for the 2024 presidential election with a number of questions about his overall fealty to left-wing political causes and candidates.

Hannity, explaining the potential for a three-way race in next year’s election, told RFK Jr. he had researched his background and concluded that he is “pretty liberal.”

“[Y]ou’ve called for curbing logging, oil drilling, fracking. You wanted to eliminate it. You called it… a victory for democracy. You wanna curb U.S. fossil fuel extraction. “Keep it in the ground,” you once tweeted. You want a ban on fossil fuel extraction, a ban on fracking. You called the NRA once, a ‘terror group,'” Hannity stated.

“You supported, over the years, Democrats – Gore, Kerry, Obama, Hillary. You praised Bernie Sanders multiple times. You support affirmative action. So, why is this party of yours– why didn’t they want to allow you to compete? ‘Cause that’s as pretty liberal of a record as anybody I know,” the Fox News host added.

RFK Jr tried to dismiss the summary as a “litany of talking points… I’ve made over 40 years,” yet Hannity fired back at the claim, telling the lifelong Democrat that the statements were from the past decade. The two went on to discuss Kennedy’s comments on the National Rifle Association (NRA) and fracking, among other issues.

Since declaring his candidacy, RFK Jr has courted a number of conservatives due to his strong stances on issues, such as vaccine mandates, COVID-19 policies, and ending U.S. involvement in forever wars.

He announced his independent run on Monday, much to the chagrin of his former party members and even his own family, who collectively called it “dangerous to our country.”

WATCH:

https://youtu.be/e2vRFFUov-I

 

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) was left startled in his latest interview with Sean Hannity after the Fox News host bombarded the newly declared Independent candidate for the 2024 presidential election with a number of questions about his overall fealty to left-wing political causes and candidates. show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
I’m no Hannity fan, but this was horrific for RFK, who desperately needs to win over more conservative supporters if his presidential bid is going to last beyond even the New Year
for exclusive members-only insights
I’m no Hannity fan, but this was horrific for RFK, who desperately needs to win over more conservative supporters if his presidential bid is going to last beyond even the New Year show more
for exclusive members-only insights
rfk jr record
October 9, 2023
William Upton
Analysis
Politics

RFK is Now Running as an ‘Independent’. So We Examined His Record.

Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped his primary challenge to President Joe Biden today and instead announced his intention to launch an “independent” bid for the White House. A liberal firebrand and son of a family tantamount to Democrat – if not American – political royalty, Kennedy has made waves in the 2024 election cycle by pitching himself as a ‘moderate’ populist. But more than two decades of Kennedy’s own statements, social media posts, and even arrest records reveal a candidate who has repeatedly espoused extreme environmentalist and radical socialist beliefs.

In a 2019 post on X (formerly Twitter), Kennedy backed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal for a top personal income tax rate of 70 percent. He said he believed conservatives would try to paint Ocasio-Cortez as a “know-nothing” for her efforts, and in the same year, endorsed Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’, stating “This is huge!” Estimates show the ‘Green New Deal’ would cost Americans between $51-$93 trillion over the next decade, if enacted.

A leaked 2016 legal memo sent to the New York Attorney General revealed Kennedy urged government officials to ban ExxonMobile from doing business in the state. Kennedy is suspected of playing an outsized role in then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking in New York, costing thousands of jobs. Cuomo is Kennedy’s ex-brother-in-law. In 2014, he said ExxonMobile deserved the corporate equivalent of the “death penalty”. In 2013, Kennedy was arrested alongside other radical environmentalists during a protest outside the White House against the Keystone XL pipeline.

Not even the U.S. military is immune to Kennedy’s environmental radicalism, who has made repeated claims that the Department of Defense is one of America’s worst polluters. Kennedy has gone so far as to accuse the military of “mounting a sneak attack against America’s health and safety.”

Outside of his support for radical environmentalism and socialist economics, Kennedy appears to be indistinguishable from most Democrat lawmakers. In 2007 and 2016 Kennedy endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. He called the NRA a “terror group” after the Parkland school shooting. And regarding the 2024 presidential race, Kennedy recently admitted he takes more votes from Donald Trump than he does Joe Biden.

For those who want an end to the American carnage, Kennedy is now surely just a spoiler candidate aiming to hand Joe Biden (and Barack Obama) another four years.

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Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped his primary challenge to President Joe Biden today and instead announced his intention to launch an "independent" bid for the White House. A liberal firebrand and son of a family tantamount to Democrat – if not American – political royalty, Kennedy has made waves in the 2024 election cycle by pitching himself as a 'moderate' populist. But more than two decades of Kennedy's own statements, social media posts, and even arrest records reveal a candidate who has repeatedly espoused extreme environmentalist and radical socialist beliefs. show more
October 7, 2023
William Upton
News
Politics

Biden is Now Blaming the Media For His Awful Economy.

President Joe Biden blamed the media for American discontent with his handling of the economy while fielding press questions on the September jobs report at the White House on Friday.

“You all are not the happiest people about what you report. You get more legs when you report something negative,” Biden said. “I think [Americans] know they’re better off financially than they were before. It’s a fact,” he concluded, before going on to make a strange point about throwing a dog in a lake.

Recent polling on the economy has been abysmal for the 80-year-old Democrat, who is ostensibly seeking re-election in 2024.

Two weeks ago a Washington Post-ABC News poll found just 30 percent of Americans approve of the Biden economy. For the first time in 32 years, Republicans lead Democrats – 53 to 39 percent – on the question of who would handle the economy better in Gallup’s tracking poll. A late-September Marquette Law School poll showed 52 percent of voters think former President Donald would better handle the economy – only 28 percent said Biden would handle it better.

Despite the Biden White House repeatedly claiming Americans are better off financially now than ever before under, mounting evidence suggests unease about the state of the economy is justified. Under Biden, nearly two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Home mortgage rates have soared to the highest levels in 23 years. In August, credit rating agency Fitch downgraded its AAA U.S. government debt rating to AA+.

Biden’s decision to center his campaign on the success of “Bidenomics” increasingly looks like a blunder. Fears over the state of the economy is driving down support for Democrats across key constituencies, including among Black and Hispanic voters. In a historic speech in Michigan, Trump made the case for “patriotic protectionism” – a relentless effort to reshore jobs from China and combat foreign trade manipulation.

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President Joe Biden blamed the media for American discontent with his handling of the economy while fielding press questions on the September jobs report at the White House on Friday. show more
October 4, 2023
William Upton
News
Politics

DeSantis’s Raised Just $5M in Q3, Down from $20M in Q2.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s fundraising woes continued last quarter with his campaign committee only raising $5 million for the Republican presidential primary contest. An additional $10 million the campaign committee says it raised can only be used for the 2024 general election according to U.S. campaign finance laws. DeSantis’s third quarter fundraising fell well below his second quarter haul of $20 million.

The cash-strapped campaign committee told staff at it’s Tallahassee, Florida headquarters on Wednesday roughly a third of them would be relocated to Iowa. Just over three months away, the Iowa caucuses are a make-or-break primary contest for DeSantis who currently has just $13.5 million cash-on-hand. The campaign believes either winning the Hawkeye state – or finishing with a strong second – will spark the momentum and donors they’ll need to defeat former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner.

In Iowa, pro-DeSantis SuperPAC Never Back Down has taken on many of the traditional roles associated with a presidential campaign committee. Campaign functions like bus tours, candidate events, and the entire political ad operation have for the most part been run through the SuperPAC. In addition, the Never Back Down has invested $25 million in a mass text messaging campaign powered by artificial intelligence as a cheaper, but unproven, alternative to television and radio ads. The DeSantis presidential campaign committee, on-the-other-hand, has yet to air even a single television ad.

A poll conducted by the DeSantis campaign’s pollster, Public Opinion Strategies, at the end of September showed Donald Trump leading Iowa with 50 percent – a 31 point advantage over DeSantis who was in a distant second at 19 percent.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's fundraising woes continued last quarter with his campaign committee only raising $5 million for the Republican presidential primary contest. An additional $10 million the campaign committee says it raised can only be used for the 2024 general election according to U.S. campaign finance laws. DeSantis's third quarter fundraising fell well below his second quarter haul of $20 million. show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
They’ve tried to put a brave face on these numbers, attempting to stress the $15 million part to the press
for exclusive members-only insights
They’ve tried to put a brave face on these numbers, attempting to stress the $15 million part to the press show more
for exclusive members-only insights
October 1, 2023
William Upton
News
Politics

RED ALERT: Top Dem Warns Party is ‘Sleepwalking Into 2016 Repeat’.

Rep. Dean Phillips, a powerful Congressional Democrat, has warned that his party is “sleepwalking into a repeat of 2016,” in comments made during an interview with POLITICO. Phillips said he believes Democrats need to consider an alternative candidate to President Joe Biden, adding: “…we should let Americans decide who is best positioned to beat Donald Trump because clearly the data is saying a majority of Americans do not believe, unfortunately, that it is President Biden.”

The Minnesota Democrat has served in Congress since winning election 2018. During his tenure he has voted for President Biden’s agenda 100 percent of the time according to FiveThirtyEight’s congressional vote tracker. When asked if he thought Biden’s age was a hinderance, Phillips responded saying he’s focused on the data: “The numbers are saying that despite successful policy implementation… people are not pleased.”

Responding to some of his Democrat colleagues who say Party critics of Biden need to ‘chill out’, Phillips said, “In my professional life, both in the public sector and private sector, chilling out has never been a recipe for success in addressing any problem.” He later added, “…chilling out does not make for electoral success.”

Rep. Phillips said he will continue to encourage those “more proximate and prepared to run a compelling campaign” to jump into the Democrat primary and challenge Biden in the hopes an alternative will emerge – admitting he himself might end up running if no one else will.

A recent Washington Post-ABC poll showed President Biden trailing former President Trump by 10 points in the 2024 presidential race.

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Rep. Dean Phillips, a powerful Congressional Democrat, has warned that his party is "sleepwalking into a repeat of 2016," in comments made during an interview with POLITICO. Phillips said he believes Democrats need to consider an alternative candidate to President Joe Biden, adding: "...we should let Americans decide who is best positioned to beat Donald Trump because clearly the data is saying a majority of Americans do not believe, unfortunately, that it is President Biden." show more