Republican South Carolina House member charged with distributing child sexual abuse material
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Republican South Carolina House member who prosecutors say used the screen name 'joebidennnn69' has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of distributing sexual abuse material involving children.
RJ May was arrested Wednesday at his Lexington County home after a lengthy investigation and is scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday.
An indictment says the three-term Republican used several online names including 'joebidennnn69' to exchange files on the Kik social media network.
The indictment didn't contain any additional details on the charges, which carry prison terms of five to 20 years upon conviction.
May is a political consultant who has angered fellow House Republicans by running campaigns for candidates running against GOP incumbents in primaries.
After his election in 2020, May helped create the Freedom Caucus, a group of the House's most conservative members who have run their own candidate against the Republican House speaker and refuse to join the Majority Caucus because they say it requires a loyalty pledge.
The mainstream House Republicans aren't the true conservative heart of the GOP, the group said.
The Freedom Caucus released a statement Wednesday night saying they kicked May out of their group after his arrest.
May was one of the House's more vocal members after he arrived, frequently criticizing bills and discussing conservative amendments.
'We as legislators have an obligation to insure that out children have no harm done to them,' May said in January 2024 on the House floor during a debate on transgender care for minors.
His oldest son charmed the House in April 2021 when May brought him to visit for his third birthday and the boy practiced his parade wave around the chamber.
But that stopped in October, when federal prosecutors filed court papers saying the investigators seized a number of electronic devices from May, and they anticipated filing a criminal indictment.
The documents provided no further details, but speculation has grown about the case. Many have distanced themselves from May, who during the current session could largely be seen at his corner desk in the back of the 124-seat chamber, mixing with very few colleagues.
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Chicago Tribune
12 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Israeli strikes on Iran lead to new test of President Donald Trump's ability to deliver on ‘America first' agenda
WASHINGTON — Just hours before Israel launched strikes on Iran early Friday, President Donald Trump was still holding onto tattered threads of hope that a long-simmering dispute over Tehran's nuclear program could be resolved without military action. But with the Israeli military operation called 'Rising Lion' now underway — something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says will go on for 'as many days as it takes' — Trump will be tested anew on his ability to make good on a campaign promise to disentangle the U.S. from foreign conflicts. Israel attacks Iran's nuclear and missile sites, prompting Iranian drone-strike retaliation'I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,' Trump said in a Friday morning social media post. 'I told them, in the strongest of words, to 'just do it,' but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn't get it done.' The administration's first reaction to the Israeli assault came not from Trump, but from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is doubling as Trump's national security adviser. He sought to make clear that the U.S. was 'not involved' and that the Republican administration's central concern was protecting U.S. forces in the region. 'Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense,' Rubio said in a statement. 'President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.' As Israel stepped up planning for strikes in recent weeks, however, Iran, had signaled that the United States would be held responsible in the event of an Israeli attack. The warning was issued by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi even as he engaged in talks with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. On Thursday, just hours before the strikes, Trump made the case that there was still time for diplomacy — but it was running out. The White House had even planned to dispatch Witkoff to Oman on Sunday for the next round of talks with Araghchi. It wasn't immediately clear how the strikes would affect plans for those discussions. But Trump on Friday urged Iran to make a nuclear deal 'before there is nothing left and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.' 'No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,' Trump added. Trump is set to meet with his National Security Council in the Situation Room on Friday to discuss the tricky path ahead. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., offered rare words of Democratic praise for the Trump administration after the attack 'for prioritizing diplomacy' and 'refraining from participating' in the military strikes. But he also expressed deep concern about what the Israeli strikes could mean for U.S. personnel in the region. Iranian officials made clear that they intended to retaliate with decisive action after the Israeli strikes targeted Iran's main enrichment facility in Natanz and the country's ballistic missile program, as well as top nuclear scientists and officials. 'I cannot understand why Israel would launch a preemptive strike at this juncture, knowing high level diplomatic discussions between the United States and Iran are scheduled for this weekend,' Kaine said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the U.S. Senate 'stands ready to work with President Trump and with our allies in Israel to restore peace in the region and, first and foremost, to defend the American people from Iranian aggression, especially our troops and civilians serving overseas.' Trump in the hours before the attack still appeared hopeful that there would be more time for diplomacy. The president, in an exchange with reporters, again urged Iran to negotiate a deal. He warned that a 'massive conflict' could occur in the Middle East without it. He later took to social media to emphasize that his 'entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran.' As long as there was a chance for an agreement, Trump said of Israel, 'I don't want them going in because I think it would blow it.' But it was clear to the administration that Israel was edging toward taking military action against Iran. The State Department on Wednesday directed a voluntary evacuation of nonessential personnel and their families from some U.S. diplomatic outposts in the Middle East. 'I don't want to be the one that didn't give any warning, and missiles are flying into their buildings. It's possible. So I had to do it,' Trump explained. Before Israel launched the strikes, some of Trump's strongest supporters were raising concerns about what another expansive conflict in the Mideast could mean for the Republican president who ran on a promise to quickly end the brutal wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Trump has struggled to find an endgame to either of those conflicts and to make good on two of his biggest foreign policy campaign promises. And after criticizing President Joe Biden during last year's campaign for preventing Israel from carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Trump found himself making the case to the Israelis to give diplomacy a chance. The push by the Trump administration to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear program came after the U.S. and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the 'worst deal ever.' The way forward is even more clouded now. 'No issue currently divides the right as much as foreign policy,' Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and an ally of the Trump White House, posted on X Thursday. 'I'm very concerned based on (everything) I've seen in the grassroots the last few months that this will cause a massive schism in MAGA and potentially disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.' Jack Posobiec, another prominent Trump supporter, warned a 'direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition.' 'Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for — the midterms are not far and Congress' majority is already razor-thin,' Posobiec added in a posting on X. Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, said the job ahead for Trump and his team is to protect U.S. forces who are highly vulnerable to Iranian retaliation. 'Israel's strike on Iran must not become the United States' war,' Kelanic said. 'The U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes another military engagement in the Middle East for good reason — an open-ended military campaign in Iran would risk repeating the catastrophic mistakes of the 2003 war in Iraq, which inadvertently strengthened Tehran's influence there.'
San Francisco Chronicle
16 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
For Trump, the military is just another extra in his reality show presidency
For someone who seems to hold the U.S. military in contempt (suckers, losers, bone spurs, V.A. cuts, mocking Gold Star families), President Donald Trump likes surrounding himself with the trappings of armed power. The military is now just another television-friendly prop for whatever Trump wants to promote, which is usually Trump himself. Trump's 79th birthday — it's the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army! Really! We swear! — on Saturday will feature a $45 million tank parade and fighter jet flyover in Washington, D.C. The weather forecast for D.C. calls for showers, making it rain on his reign parade, which, of course, is bad television. Trump's chartreuse cotton-candy hairstyle could collapse like a soufflé, for example. He was afraid that it would happen in France at a D-Day event in 2020. He canceled. Meanwhile, Trump's war gaming has spread to Los Angeles, where, against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, he called in 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines. There will be more cities, too, so watch for troops on Union Square. That'll help San Francisco tourism. Trump's obsession with the military-as-extras-in-a-reality-show approach is not only lousy politics, it's antithetical to the American nonpartisan approach to its military. According to historian Michael Beschloss, the late president and former Gen. Dwight Eisenhower felt that a military parade like one would see in totalitarian countries '(imitating) what the Soviets are doing in Red Square would make us look weak.' Yet another reason to like Ike, a sensible Republican president who knew the power of military imagery. Trump's sham-handed response to the Los Angeles protests against immigration raids has sent America reeling. While there certainly has been property damage in L.A., most Angelenos are going about their business at brunch, hardly the urban hellscape so ably exploited by the president's media handmaidens. When Trump marched over to Washington's Lafayette Square in 2020 and held up a bible in front of a church like some '700 Club' pitchman, he asked/ordered Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to accompany him. Later, Milley said he thought it was terrible that he did that, saying Trump was a 'wannabe dictator' and a 'fascist to the core.' Wannabe? For example, Trump installed as secretary of defense a Fox News talking head/blowhard, Pete Hegseth, who is more than willing not to stand up to the president, unlike former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who managed to wave off 47's fascist impulses. Esper said, 'We reached that point in the conversation where (Trump) looked frankly at Gen. Milley and said, 'Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?'' Um, no. No, we can't. Now there is no Milley or Esper at the table. Just Pete's tats. Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly shown the door on Thursday during a press conference featuring cosplaying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose previous experience was being governor of a state with a population slightly more than San Francisco. Padilla was handcuffed and hustled out of the news conference after saying to Noem, 'You insist on exaggerating.' Padilla may find himself the latest star of the L.A. ICE Raids News Cycle, after Gov. Gavin Newsom had his 15 minutes of fame on Tuesday. At this point, it's not at all difficult to imagine Trump wearing a gold-epaulette uniform, resplendent with medals more appropriate for the Chilean Pinochet regime than the American presidency. Why not throw his Ceaușescu -aspirational sons into uniforms as well? After all, they haven't managed to channel their patriotic juices into actually going in the military, either. That's for the little people. Get the Proud Boys into some snappy military blues, too. They're now Trump J6 heroes. That insurrection was OK. No need to bring in the National Guard or the Marines. It was in the service of Trump, not democracy, which is all that matters now. Other than damaging D.C.'s boulevards with tank treads and sending the Marines over the Grapevine, perhaps the clearest sign that Trump's military fetish has crossed the line is his performance at the Fort Bragg Army base, where reported that a unit-level message said there were to be 'no fat soldiers … If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don't want to be in the audience, then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out.' Since norms are now antiquarian afterthoughts, do all soldiers have the choice going forward, or is this just a trial run for a quasi-Nuremberg rally? My guess is that President Joe Biden placed no such restrictions when he addressed troops. Oh, and his son Beau was an Army Reserve major. That separation of civilian and military is so 2024. Another Trump fetish is his demand that Army bases revert to their Confederate hero names, like Robert E. Lee. Memo to Trump: They put Arlington National Cemetery in Lee's front yard, as a warning to future traitors. One would think that leading an armed rebellion against the U.S. government and President Abraham Lincoln, the first GOP president, might be disqualifying for a military base name. Other than virtual signaling to racists, it's just another day in the conundrum Trump has created for the military. The tanks will roll by on Saturday, chewing up the streets and delighting our juvenile president. But the U.S. Constitution has tread marks on it already.
Associated Press
17 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Finding a strong candidate for governor in Pennsylvania may help GOP protect its US House majority
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Job No. 1 for Republicans in Pennsylvania is to scrounge up a candidate to contest next year's reelection bid by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro — if only to run interference for other Republicans on the ballot who are clinging to seats in Congress. In other words, the unalluring mission of next year's Republican gubernatorial nominee could be just to not get blown out by the relatively popular incumbent. That's because a lopsided victory by Shapiro could otherwise doom Republicans up and down Pennsylvania's ballot — and, with them, the GOP's narrow majority in the U.S. House that backs President Donald Trump's agenda. That's one more reason Pennsylvania could again find itself at the center of attention, even during the midterms and even if the GOP faces long odds against beating Shapiro. Democrats are targeting four GOP-held congressional seats in Pennsylvania alone — more than in any other state — and they need to flip only three seats nationwide to retake the majority they lost last year. Having a valuable standard-bearer is important, analysts say. That is the candidate who often sets the tone for the party in the state, delivers the party's message and drives the enthusiasm of the party's faithful to go out and vote. Republicans had Trump atop their ticket in 2024, and he proved formidable in Pennsylvania. Next year, it will be Democrats with a familiar name leading the way, and he, too, brings considerable heft. Shapiro has won three statewide races, is working to sustain his robust public approval ratings and carries a reputation as a disciplined messenger and powerhouse fundraiser who is on the party's shortlist for top White House contenders in 2028. He'll run at what could be a difficult time for Republicans. During a midterm election, the party of the president — in this case, Trump — typically loses seats in what pollsters describe as a political readjustment by an electorate that tends to punish the status quo. 'The big question I have is, 'Would you as a Republican thinking about this office want to choose 2026 as the time you want to make that run?'' said Christopher Borick, a pollster and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. 'You're thinking, 'Well I want to be governor,' but you're thinking, 'I have to first take on a well-funded incumbent who's never lost a race in the state, and I have to do it in a period where my party is facing headwinds.'' The four Republican congressmen in Pennsylvania being targeted by Democrats are Rob Bresnahan, Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie and Scott Perry. Fitzpatrick and Perry are survivors of repeated challenges. Bresnahan and Mackenzie are freshmen. Fitzpatrick is one of just three House Republicans nationally to represent a district won by Democrat Kamala Harris in last year's presidential election. He won by 13 percentage points. But Perry, Bresnahan and Mackenzie each won by 1.6 percentage points or less, putting their victories among the narrowest of 2024. Those victories came without political headwinds on a GOP ticket led by Trump, who carried battleground Pennsylvania by nearly 2 percentage points. Plus, Republicans lost a slew of seats in Pennsylvania the last two times an incumbent Democratic governor ran for reelection in midterms with a Republican president. There's also this to consider: Shapiro won all four districts when he won his 2022 contest by almost 15 percentage points. Republicans would rather forget that election, when the party nominated a relative political novice who ran an insular, ham-handed campaign — and got blown out. It's going to be 'super-important' for Republicans' down-ballot races to have a strong top-of-the-ticket candidate, said Bob Salera, a Republican campaign strategist who has worked on campaigns for governor in Pennsylvania. But, Republicans acknowledge, Shapiro enters the race from a position of strength. 'He's turning into a national figure, so he'll have all the money possible at his disposal to win in 2026,' Salera said. 'He's a formidable candidate, for certain, and it'll take a formidable Republican to beat him.' Defeating Shapiro is obviously the GOP's preference. But a competitive race could at least protect other Republicans and damage Shapiro's popularity in Pennsylvania enough to pay dividends in the next presidential contest. 'Josh Shapiro is a fairly strong candidate,' said Bill Bretz, the GOP chair of heavily Republican Westmoreland County. 'He's someone we need to identify the chink in the armor here and need to set back his candidacy for governor so that we can set him back in 2028.' In any case, it's a little early for that conversation, Bretz said. No Republican has declared a candidacy for the GOP nomination, and, for now, only two say they're considering it. One is U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, who hails from a Trump-friendly congressional district in northeastern Pennsylvania. At Trump's rally at a U.S. Steel plant earlier this month, Trump singled out Meuser in the crowd and said nice things about him. 'He's been a great congressman, and if you run, you have my support totally, and you'll win,' Trump said. Meuser said he'll decide by July 1. The other is state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a two-time statewide winner who has campaigned for other Republicans all over Pennsylvania but has raised only a fraction of the money Shapiro did while winning two low-profile races. All told, Democrats have put a target on 35 Republican-held House districts, needing to flip just three to transform a 220-215 majority into a minority. All four of the targeted Republicans in Pennsylvania voted last month for Trump's big tax cut and spending bill, helping it pass by one vote — a vote that Democrats say will cost them. For his part, Shapiro smashed Pennsylvania's campaign spending record in 2022, and he's running for reelection in a state that's friendly to incumbent governors. Shapiro's most recent public approval ratings resemble those of a candidate who'll cruise to reelection, said Berwood Yost, a pollster and director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin and Marshall College. Shapiro unified the party and its allies behind his candidacy in 2022, after winning two statewide elections for attorney general. Shapiro has ably managed the levers of state government and avoided any major scandal. He has raised his profile nationally, including making Harris' shortlist of vice presidential running mates, and kept his grip on party unity. For a candidate to run against Shapiro, there aren't many incentives, Yost said. Timing can be everything in a successful — or unsuccessful — political career, he said. 'You never know what's going to happen, but you're signing up for something you know will be incredibly challenging,' Yost said. 'You have to wonder, if you're an ambitious politician, timing is important. 'Maybe you wait this one out. There's always another statewide race.' ___ Follow Marc Levy on X at:
