Political analyst Mark Halperin says Dems are 'worried' about 2028
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Fox News
23 minutes ago
- Fox News
Schwarzenegger taunts Newsom with message targeting Dem redistricting push
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pumping up for a new fight. The longtime Hollywood action star, the last Republican governor in Democrat-dominated California, says he's mobilizing to oppose the push by current Gov. Gavin Newsom to temporarily scrap the state's nonpartisan redistricting commission. "I'm getting ready for the gerrymandering battle," Schwarzenegger wrote in a social media post Friday, which included a photo of the former professional bodybuilding champion lifting weights. Schwarzenegger, who rose to worldwide fame as the star of the film "The Terminator" four decades ago, wore a T-shirt in the photo that said "terminate gerrymandering." The social media post by Schwarzenegger comes as Democratic leaders in the Democrat-dominated California legislature are moving forward with new proposed congressional district maps that would create up to five more blue-leaning U.S. House seats in the nation's most populous state. Newsom on Thursday teamed up in Los Angeles with congressional Democrats and legislative leaders in the heavily blue state to unveil their redistricting playbook. Newsom and the Democrats are aiming to counter the ongoing effort by President Donald Trump and Republicans to create up to five GOP-friendly congressional districts in red state Texas at the expense of Democrat-controlled seats. "Today is liberation day in the state of California," Newsom said. "Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back." Newsom vowed to "meet fire with fire" with his push for a rare — but not unheard of — mid-decade redistricting. The Republican push in Texas, which comes at Trump's urging, is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to pad its razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats. Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the 2018 midterms. While the Republican push in Texas to upend the current congressional maps doesn't face constitutional constraints, Newsom's path in California is much more complicated. The governor is pushing to hold a special election this year to get voter approval to undo the constitutional amendments that created the nonpartisan redistricting commission. A two-thirds majority vote in the Democrat-dominated California legislature as early as next week would be needed to hold the referendum. Democratic Party leaders are confident they'll have the votes to push the constitutional amendment and the new proposed congressional maps through the legislature. "Here we are in open and plain sight before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm election, and here [Trump] is once again trying to rig the system," Newsom charged. Newsom said his plan is "not complicated. We're doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor in the state of Texas and said, 'Find me five seats.' We're doing it in reaction to that act." The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said "Newsom's made it clear: he'll shred California's Constitution and trample over democracy — running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought, and power is the only priority." But Newsom defended his actions, saying "we're working through a very transparent, temporary and public process. We're putting the maps on the ballot and putting the power to the people." Thursday's appearance by Newsom, considered a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, also served as a fundraising kickoff to raise massive amounts of campaign cash needed to sell the redistricting push statewide in California. The nonpartisan redistricting commission, created over 15 years ago, remains popular among most Californians, according to public opinion polling. That's why Newsom and California Democratic lawmakers are promising not to scrap the commission entirely, but rather replace it temporarily by the legislature for the next three election cycles. "We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census, but we are asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting," Newsom said. Their efforts are opposed by a number of people supportive of the nonpartisan commission. Among the most visible members is likely to be Schwarzenegger. "He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it's truly evil for politicians to take power from people," Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell told Politico earlier this month. "He's opposed to what Texas is doing, and he's opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing." Schwarzenegger, during his tenure as governor, had a starring role in the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that took the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and placed it in the hands of an independent commission. "Most people don't really think about an independent commission much, one way or another. And that's both an opportunity and a challenge for Newsom," Jack Pitney, an American politics professor at California's Claremont McKenna College, told Fox News. "It's going to take a lot of effort and money to energize Democrats and motivate them to show up at the polls," Pitney said, adding Newsom's effort "is all about motivating people who don't like Trump."
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani endorsed by Queen borough president — who compares socialist to Obama, urges fellow Dems to ‘meet the moment'
Zohran Mamdani ended his anti-President Trump tour of the five boroughs Friday with a glowing endorsement from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards — who compared the socialist upstart to former President Barack Obama. Richards, a Democrat who has been serving the borough for over 13 years, urged the party to fall in line behind the 33-year-old mayoral nominee, as top New York Dems continue to drag their feet on publicly backing Mamdani. 'Zohran has inspired hope, and I couldn't understand it all at first, but then I thought back to who inspired me in 2008, Barack Obama. He gave me hope. It was this feeling of hope,' said Donovan at the Kew Gardens office of the 32BJ SEIU union 3 Queens Borough President Donovan Richards (left) endorses Zohran Mamdani (right) for mayor of NYC. Brigitte Stelzer 'The Democratic Party has to meet this moment. We've always been a big tent party,' Richards said, seemingly pointing to the slew of high-profile centrist Democrats who have yet to give the socialist candidate their stamp of approval. The comparison between Mamdani and Obama comes just days after The New York Times reported the pair spoke on the phone shortly after the frontrunner's landslide primary win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June. Donovan is the third borough president to put their weight behind the Democratic candidate. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine — who is the Democratic candidate for city comptroller– and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso have also endorsed Mamdani. Among those holding off are Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his fellow New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn congressman. 3 Richards compared Mamdani to a 2008 Obama in his remarks. Brigitte Stelzer 'This is not about socialism, it's not about the establishment. This is about working people and ensuring that working people can thrive to survive in this very city that's becoming out of reach for everyday New Yorkers,' Richards said. Mamdani, who lives in Astoria, chose his home borough as the last stop on the 'Five-Boroughs against Trump' tour he embarked on this week. 3 Richards gave the glowing endorsement of Mamdani at the 32BJ SEIU Queens Headquarters on Friday. Brigitte Stelzer He and Richards were joined by members of 32BJ SEIU, an influential union primarily representing property service workers with over 80,000 members in New York City. Mamdani spoke to attendees about immigration, small businesses, cost-of-living and other issues, with a message more centered around his campaign policies and mayoral foes rather than attacks on Trump — though he did make some fear-mongering remarks in his speech Friday. 'There is no one that is safe, from the cruelty that marks so much of what animates the Trump administration,' he said.
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Fox News
Biden warned of DC crime crisis in 1992 as Dems blast Trump crackdown: ‘Don't stop at a stoplight'
In 1992, then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., sounded much like President Donald Trump does today, repeatedly warning about Washington, D.C.'s crime crisis — the same issue that ultimately led the current Republican leader to take control of the city's authorities. Biden argued in favor of the need to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C., as he took to the Senate floor that September to warn against stopping at red lights late at night and urged his colleagues to support what became the "Biden Crime Bill." The clip resurfaced as the Democratic Party, in which Biden has been the de facto leader, lambasted Trump's takeover of Washington law enforcement agencies to quell what the clip itself laid out to now be a multi-decade crisis. Biden addressed Senate Presiding Officer Robert Byrd, D-W.V., saying when he could not catch an Amtrak train back to the Wilmington station that now bears his name, he would either "get in my car outside this great citadel of justice and freedom and drive out to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway" or rent a room at the Hyatt Hotel on New Jersey Avenue. Biden said he never worried about getting jumped, until one night a representative for the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms stopped him from walking to the hotel. "Now I am not any more than my friend (Byrd) from West Virginia very big on perks here in the United States Senate. I don't think either one of us have ever been accused of seeking the perks of office," he said. "And I felt it was kind of silly." Biden said he was warned that a congressman "had been stabbed in the gutter outside the Hyatt" a short time prior and that "two people had been shot in the park." "Driving home, my staff, who lives here on the Hill, reminded me don't stop at a stoplight until I'm out of town." The future president said crime risks in Washington had gotten so bad that he would "slow up" halfway down a block when the next traffic signal turned red and "never come to a full stop" at the intersection. "Because of carjackers: stopping at the light, people standing on the corner, walking up with a gun." Biden recounted a Sergeant-at-Arms official telling him that he unsuccessfully interrupted a carjacking at a 7-Eleven in Washington – as the official watched a woman pump gas and walk over to pay the attendant when someone jumped in her car and attempted to take off until the official intervened. The crook produced a pistol and the official relented. "What's changed, Mr. President, is it used to be at least the women and men in this country, if they were very prudent about how they behaved... and didn't walk certain places at night; didn't do certain things that put themselves at risk, that they had a pretty good prospect of avoiding becoming the victims of violent crime." "Not today, Mr. President. Prudence in no way will determine whether or not you can avoid being the victim of violent crime -- It may increase your chances of not being a victim, but there's no place to hide, Mr President. And let's look at what's happened just in the last several years here [in Washington]." In separate floor remarks, Biden slammed then-President George H.W. Bush for reportedly helping prevent passage of crime-crackdown legislation – and bragged that "we do everything but hang people for jaywalking in this bill." While Biden's "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993" he was lobbying for never passed, the successful "Clinton Crime Bill" from Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, the following year shared much of its substance.
