How the Left Fell in Love With Conor Lamb
'I can give some people some helpful information and context about these different policy debates and fill in some of the issues for them,' the former three-term congressman and Marine lawyer said.
Matt Beynon, a longtime aide to former Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Rick Santorum and a veteran Republican consultant in the state, noted that Lamb is tapping into the sense that 'Fetterman has been MIA and he's just simply not doing the job.'
'Being a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania means representing 13 million people,' said Beynon. 'It means getting to all 67 counties every year, because that's what every senator, Republican or Democrat, over the last 50 years from Pennsylvania has done.'
Lamb insists his statewide tour isn't about self-promotion or laying the groundwork for a 2028 Senate bid, though he doesn't rule anything out. 'You know, if an opportunity to run for anything, including the Senate in the future, seems to be there, I'll definitely look at it,' he said. 'But it's three years away, and to be honest, when I started this, I thought John would maybe adjust and start acting like a better senator, and start speaking up for the people that he used to promise he was going to fight for raising the minimum wage and all sorts of issues.'
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The Hill
a few seconds ago
- The Hill
Texas Senate passes GOP-friendly House map
The Texas Senate passed a GOP-friendly House map on Tuesday, putting it a step closer to final passage in the state legislature. The upper chamber voted 19-2 to pass a new set of congressional lines that would give Republicans five pick-up opportunities in the U.S. House ahead of 2026, identical to the map the state House is trying to pass. A group of Senate Democrats left the session, saying in a statement, 'We walked out because this session should be about flood relief, not politics. Texans deserve leaders who put people first.' Texas state Sens. Chuy Hinojosa (D) and Judith Zaffirini (D) remained in the chamber, according to The Dallas Morning News. A Texas House committee advanced its House map earlier this month, but efforts to vote on it on the House floor have stalled as Texas Democrats remain out of the state to deny Republicans a quorum, or the minimum number of lawmakers needed present to conduct business. The Texas House needs to pass the new congressional map before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) can sign it into law. Opponents have already signaled they're ready to sue over the maps once they pass. 'Under this new, even worse gerrymander, millions of Texans—targeting Texans of color—will have their voices silenced,' said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), in a statement. 'Make no mistake, if Texas Republicans enact this discriminatory map, they will face swift, significant resistance from the people and in the courts.'
Newsweek
a minute ago
- Newsweek
The 1600: Real Talk on Crime
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There's crime in the strict definition: homicides, shootings, carjackings, robberies, etc. Then there's the more ambient forms of social disorder: homeless encampments that pop up and spread, a noticeable increase in crazy people roaming the subways, brazen shoplifting and farebeating, street takeovers, etc. Democrats and the left like to focus on the former at the expense of the latter. But the latter is arguably a bigger political problem than actual violent crime, because it tends to be much more visible and socially corrosive. Here in the Big Apple, Trump got about 100K more votes in 2024 than he did in '20. I am convinced that a significant slice of those votes could be attributed strictly to the fact that you can't pop into a CVS or Walgreens in the city to pick up toothpaste without having to get the merchandise unlocked for you. I'm not kidding. I believe that experience alone probably created tens of thousands of new Republican voters in New York. There is something so dehumanizing about having to press a button and wait for some underpaid teenager to saunter over and unlock your deodorant, that it gives you the time to wonder whether the liberal governance of your city has actually made your day-to-day life worse. As far as actual violent crime, the Post, Times, CNN, NBC et al. have pointed out how DC is actually seeing "historically low" crime rates, or at least a significant dip in crime. That may be true (though it probably isn't. The city's police department is under investigation for allegedly cooking the stats to make them look better than they are). But it doesn't reflect what people see with their own eyes. Dems made this exact mistake with inflation during the Biden years. "Oh, it's transitory." "It's not as bad as you think." Or my favorite, "Inflation is good, actually." Then you go to the grocery store and your bill is, like, double what it was a few months earlier for the same stuff. But the New York Times told me inflation is "only" up 3 percent?! DC also does have a very specific violent crime problem, which is carjackings. I suspect that's because of how easy it is to get onto the interstate and disappear into one of three or four states within a few minutes. But crimes like carjacks scare the public because it could (and does) happen to anyone. This is the other thing that doesn't get talked about in the crime discourse, because it is impolitic to say. Urban crime doesn't draw the ire of the political class unless it starts to happen in places where they, or their kids or friends' kids, start to see it. In DC, you might have a spate of gang shootings in Anacostia that never make the news. But when a college kid gets grazed in a drive-by while having brunch in Dupont Circle, or a Congressional intern gets murdered walking to the Metro, that becomes a political problem for the mayor and, by virtue of DC's weird and confusing governance structure, the federal government. The shame of it all is that what's happening in DC masks what is an actually remarkable crime story playing out across the country. In nearby Baltimore, the city is tracking to have its lowest murder rate in 50 years. Up I-95, in Philly, fatal shootings are at a decade low. In St. Louis, all categories of violent crime are down sharply. Boston recorded just 24 murders in all of last year. Here in NYC, the first half of the year showed the lowest number of shootings and murders in recorded history. Putting aside the "ambient social disorder" problem, the actual chances of getting shot or violently assaulted in our big cities has plummeted. The murder spike we saw during Covid is, for all intents and purposes, now over. This is amazing, and reflects a combination of smart policing, new technologies, poverty reduction and community involvement. But it's very difficult to wave around stats like this without coming across as apathetic to people's "lived experience." Because the fact is there is no "good" level of crime. And crime is one of those few things, like inflation and immigration, that voters really, really care about because they see its effects in their day-to-day lives. The Rundown European Union leaders have issued a fresh appeal to President Donald Trump on Ukraine, imploring him ahead of his crunch summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to protect the country and Europe's security interests and not to exclude Kyiv from any agreement. Read more. Also happening: U.S. economy: Federal data shows that inflation held fairly steady in July, defying fears of a tariff-driven spike in consumer prices and good news for President Trump, who is continuing to push for the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates. Here's the latest. Redistricting: Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott has warned Democrats that he could "eliminate" 10 of his state's 12 Democratic-held seats if the two parties were to launch a nationwide battle to redraw congressional maps. "All those big, blue states, they've already gerrymandered. Look at the map of Illinois, look at the map of California, New York and Massachusetts and so many other blue states, they gerrymandered a long time ago, they've got nothing left with regard to what they can do," he said. Read more. This is a preview of The 1600—Tap here to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
Politico
a minute ago
- Politico
DOGE math 200 days in
Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben The Department of Government Efficiency is drastically overstating its savings, according to a new POLITICO analysis of public data and federal spending records. Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that POLITICO could verify, DOGE's savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion. And despite the administration's claims, not a penny of those savings will lower the federal deficit unless Congress intervenes. Instead, the money was returned to agencies mandated by law to spend it. 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Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! POTUS PUZZLER Who was the one president to be born in Illinois? (Answer at bottom.) In the Courts DOGE GETS THE DATA: A federal appeals court panel today cleared the way for DOGE to access data held by the Office of Personnel Management and departments of Treasury and Education, thwarting a lawsuit brought by public sector unions, our KYLE CHENEY writes in. The 2-1 ruling lifts a preliminary injunction issued in March by U.S. District Judge DEBORAH BOARDMAN restricting the ELON MUSK outfit's access to sensitive employee information. The opinion, authored by DONALD TRUMP appointee Judge JULIUS RICHARDSON and joined by GEORGE W. BUSH appointee Judge G. STEVEN AGEE, concludes that the unions likely lacked standing to sue over the issue. 'The harm that might come from this generalized grant of database access to an additional handful of government employees — prone as they may be to hacks or leaks, as Plaintiffs have alleged — seems different in kind, not just in degree, from the harm inflicted by reporters, detectives, and paparazzi,' the judges wrote. Judge ROBERT KING, a BILL CLINTON appointee, dissented, saying the majority opinion set an unusually high bar for the unions to clear. He also noted that the full bench of the 4th Circuit is slated to weigh in on the matter when it considers a separate case on DOGE's access to Social Security data. Agenda Setting IN THE HOT SEAT: The Justice Department found George Washington University failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus, making it the latest college to face scrutiny from the Trump administration, our BIANCA QUILANTAN reports. The agency said it is offering GWU the chance to enter into a voluntary resolution agreement before the officials proceed with enforcement but did not include the terms the school must agree to in their notice. The university did not respond to a request for comment. A PERFECT LOOPHOLE: Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. ANTONI, floated in a recent Fox News interview the idea of suspending the monthly jobs report in favor of less frequent quarterly data published by the agency, our NICK NIEDZWIADEK reports. In a change that would almost certainly unnerve markets, Antoni said that BLS should halt issuing reports — widely relied upon by economists, the Federal Reserve and Wall Street to gauge the state of the economy — until its methods can be improved to limit subsequent revisions. White House press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT diverted from that opinion at the podium this afternoon, saying the 'plan and hope' is for BLS to still put out monthly reports. ALL ABOUT ME: The White House is planning to conduct a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary to ensure the museums align with Trump's interpretation of American history, WSJ's MERIDITH McGRAW reports. In a letter sent to LONNIE BUNCH, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, three top White House officials said they want to ensure the museums' 'unity, progress and enduring values that define the American story' and reflect the president's executive order calling for 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.' A spokesperson for the Smithsonian didn't respond to a request for comment. WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT THE ROOOMATE BOND KNOWS NO BOUNDS: The Justice Department chief of staff, CHAD MIZELLE, is moving to appoint his wedding groomsman and law school housemate as an official overseeing corporate fraud, Bloomberg Law's BEN PENN reports. Although the effort is not finalized, Mizelle is pushing to install CODY HERCHE as the DOJ criminal division's deputy supervising the fraud and appellate sections. Compared to his predecessors, including in Trump's first term, Herche has far less experience in criminal trials and leading prosecutors, but a DOJ spokesperson defended his 'wealth of experience' in a statement, Penn reports. The final decision lies with Attorney General PAM BONDI pending the president's approval. What We're Reading Trump officials cast a wider net for Powell replacement at Fed (POLITICO's Victoria Guida) Kari Lake's Attempt to Deport Her Own Employees (The Atlantic's Toluse Olorunnipa) The Palestinian Who Led a Militia, a Theater and a Jailbreak (NYT's Patrick Kingsley and Fatima AbdulKarim) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER That would be former President RONALD REAGAN, who was born in Tampico, Illinois, in 1911, where he resided for 22 years until moving to Iowa to pursue a career in sports broadcasting.
