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Fox News
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
NYT columnist claims Trump and Abbott's Texas redistricting plans are 'mustard gas on our democracy'
New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks claimed that President Donald Trump ordered Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, to rhetorically use "mustard gas" on American democracy by launching redistricting efforts. Texas Republicans, encouraged by the Trump administration, are pursuing a congressional map aimed at adding up to five GOP-leaning districts, prompting fierce backlash and counteraction. Texas Democrats have fled the Lone Star State to Democratic-stronghold states. Their goal is to break quorum and halt the vote. As first noticed by NewsBusters, Brooks appeared on "PBS NewsHour" on Friday, where he was asked if he believed that politics had boiled down to nothing more than an indefinite power struggle between the two parties. He told "NewsHour" co-anchor Amna Nawaz, "I understand the argument. But let's do a little ethical experiment here. You're in World War I. The Germans use mustard gas on civilians, and it helps them. Do you then decide, 'Okay, we're going to use mustard gas on civilians?'" he responded. "What Trump ordered Abbott to do in Texas is mustard gas on our democracy. Some people would feel, 'Okay, that was terrible. We have to fight that. It's horrible. It's horrible. But we're going to fight back. It's just — that's war.'" Brooks was also critical of redistricting efforts on the other side of the political aisle, slamming California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his role in helping to "destroy our democracy." "Gavin Newsom is leaping into this with both legs. And, to me, there's a moral stain that will accompany anybody who does this, because basically they are destroying our democracy," he said. "You don't let politicians pick voters. You let voters pick politicians." The New York Times opinion columnist asserted that those who oppose gerrymandering are "the ones defending democracy," and warned that the opposing parties' redistricting battle is a "race to the bottom." Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week that California will move forward with a plan for a special election in early November to place its own redistricting plan on a ballot measure before voters. The Golden State governor said the move was a counterpunch to Texas and was being done in a transparent fashion, but would also likely see Democrats pick up five seats if the measure is adopted. The plan would allow Democrats to temporarily bypass the state's independent redistricting commission and adopt a new congressional map ahead of the 2026 elections. While Brooks was critical of Newsom's decision to fight fire with fire on the redistricting front, he noted that the California governor wasn't the one who started the battle. "I fully grant you that Trump started it. So I'm not saying it's totally morally equivalent. But there's a moral stain. And what's going to happen is, people are going to say, 'It's those politicians,'" he argued. In closing, Brooks contended that the real losers in this scenario would be the voters and that the politicians working on redistricting are "literally disenfranchising people." "Loss of faith in the system, loss of faith in democracy, and literally less democracy, because, if you are a Texas voter or a California voter, or if New York does it or if Missouri does it, whoever — all the states that are going to do this, you are literally disenfranchising people, because you can pick the district so carefully that the voters don't matter so much," he concluded. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Governor Abbott's office for comment.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom Out-Trumps Trump With A 2028 POTUS Campaign Launch By Any Other Name To Fight GOP Gerrymandering
'Today is Liberation Day in the state of California,' Gavin Newsom proclaimed today in downtown L.A. of the legislative effort to stop Donald Trump from 'rigging the system' with gerrymandering and other blows against American democracy. 'I know they say don't mess with Texas, well don't mess with the great Golden State.' 'We've got to recognize the cards that have been dealt,' Newsom added in his new-ish Resistor-in-Chief role. 'We've got to meet fire with fire,' the governor went on to say, asking for a National Commission on redistricting. He also noted, to jeers, the presence of masked ICE and DHS agents outside the rally venue of the Democracy Center in downtown L.A. More from Deadline Newsom Tells Donald 'TACO' Trump His Time's Up In All-Caps Message On Redistricting Fight Inside Gavin Newsom & Alex Padilla's Media Blitz Of Trump & JD Vance: 'Is He Confused Again?' Governor Mocks POTUS Networks Plan Special Reports And Dispatch Anchors To Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin Summit Seeking the backing of the legislature in Sacramento to level the electoral playing field after the GOP-ruled Lone Star state rewrote the rules to give Trump five new Congressional seats, Newsom is aiming for a Special Election on November 4 to give Democrats five more seats in California. On pause until the likes of Florida and Missouri make their own gerrymanderiing moves or not, Newsom's plan, if successful, would effectively blunt the increasingly very unpopular Trump's hopes of holding onto a majority in the House of Representatives. The White House was a little too fast on the X trigger in its response from Communications Director Steven Cheung. 'We are not going to sit back passively …Donald Trump does not play fair,' Newsom said in a press conference he held right after his speech. Confident he'll get the 2/3 majority needed for the Election Rigging Response Act to pass the Legislature, the Governor promised the redistricting maps will be released soon. 'I imagine other states will consider their own path,' he said of other Blue States in the nation. As promised, in Newsom's trolling of Trump on social media the past two weeks, the California governor's event was draped as an all-caps and more 'HISTORIC … BEAUTIFUL RALLY.' 'He knows his Presidency ends in 17 months,' the Governor said Thursday of Trump, who Democrats have already threatened with a third impeachment if they retake Congress. 'He's a failed president,' Newsom went on to lambaste Trump to cheers from the invited audience, repeating his frequent condemnation of the TACO POTUS as having 'weakness masquerading as strength.' Taking questions today in the Oval Office before heading off to sit down tomorrow in Alaska with Vladimir Putin, who had to get a special dispensation to attend and not be arrested as a war criminal, Trump said that without his taking over the California National Guard and Marines earlier this year to quell protests against ruthless and often warrantless immigration raids earlier this summer, L.A. 'wouldn't be existent today.' Revealing his true priorities Trump added: 'We would have had to cancel the Olympics if I let that go on.' 'Other Blue states need to stand up,' Newsom declared at his own rally, with an eye perhaps to another election in 2028. Still fighting Trump in court over POTUS taking over putting the California National Guard on the streets of L.A., the term-limited Newsom has emerged as the de facto leader of the opposition in the absence of Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and others on the national stage. In short, if Gavin Newsom is running for President, as many have assumed he will, today was also a campaign launch by any other name. Or to paraphrase Trump, as Sen. Adam Schiff did in his remarks, 'Donald Trump, thank you for your attention in this matter.' Raising the bar on his social media platforms and front-facing postures since the New Year, Newsom has earned the nickname 'Newscum' from Trump and a clear personal vendetta where once the duo had a Cold War stance during the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host's first term. More low-key in execution than the MAGA love-ins Trump flourishes in, Newsom's gathering slammed the violent ICE abductions rampaging through California and other Blue States, the dismissing of court orders, the bullying of institutions, attacks on the Constitution, the loss of Roe v. Wade, and, in the words of Lorena Gonzalez, head of the California AFL-CIO, the 'f*cking billionaires who are causing this problem in the first place.' The point of Thursday's get together was to take action on the West Coast on the Election Rigging Response Act in reaction to gerrymandering efforts in Texas to redistrict in the hopes of maintaining or increasing GOP majority in the House of Representatives in next year's still scheduled midterms. However, Newsom and others were also full throated in their intent that California's measures will halt Trump's authoritarianism and attacks on democracy. To that, as to be expected, the Democrats' core issues of abortion rights, education, healthcare, LGBTQ+ rights, and more were also on the agenda. With an American flag center stage, in attendance were both of the Golden State's Senators, Schiff ('You don't poke the bear,' he told the crowd) and Padilla, various state reps, as well as the Democrats' core supporters of union chiefs, Planned Parenthood leaders and social justice advocates. Streamed online, the reaction to Republican efforts to rig the 2024 elections with redistricting and the seven months of Trump's 'chaos,' as Senator Alex Padilla termed it, the gathering was covered live in part by MSNBC and Fox News, but ignored by CNN and the BBC for continued reporting on Trump's summit with Putin Friday in America's northern most state. The anti-gerrymandering assembly was absent also from the homepages of the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and The New York Times. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More Everything We Know About Prime Video's 'Legally Blonde' Prequel Series 'Elle'
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Texas congressman town hall hits Indiana
Beto O'Rourke, a former presidential candidate and U.S. congressman, is back on a national tour and he's stopping in Indiana this weekend. O'Rourke will host a free town hall meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday at VisionLoft Stutz in downtown Indianapolis to hear directly from Hoosiers. The event is open to the public and attendees can RSVP at During the town hall, the former U.S. Representative from Texas, plans to take questions from audience members on state and federal issues, as well as discussing the future of American democracy with Hoosiers, according to a press release. The veteran campaigner nearly unseated Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race in 2018. He also ran for president in 2020 but after nearly eight months of campaigning, he stepped out of the race and endorsed President Joe Biden. Most recently, he ran for governor of Texas in 2022 but lost to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Although he didn't seal any recent victories, he's remained active in national politics through voter engagement and his grass-root organization. O'Rourke launched his voter mobilization group, Powered by People, in 2019. Since the group's founding, he has been on the road to hear directly from individuals and to register voters. The group has run one of the largest progressive voter mobilization efforts in Texas history and has registered thousands of Texans to vote, according to the release. He has held more than a dozen town halls across Texas, including more than 10 public meetings in congressional districts served by Republicans. He has also led more than 20 events across the country, organizing college students to register to vote and visiting states that have been 'taken for granted.' The Indianapolis stop is part of O'Rourke's ongoing tour. Before arriving in Indiana, he will hold town halls in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and Wisconsin. During previous meetings he has sparked speculation about potential U.S. Senate run in the 2026 election and called on Democrats to launch gerrymandering campaigns. This town hall meeting isn't his first visit to Indiana – he previously held a town hall during his presidential campaign at J's Breakfast Club in Gary. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
05-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Makes Herself Heard, Prompting a Rebuke
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote just five majority opinions in the Supreme Court term that ended last month, the fewest of any member of the court. But her voice resonated nonetheless, in an unusually large number of concurring and dissenting opinions, more than 20 in all. Several of them warned that the court was taking lawless shortcuts, placing a judicial thumb on the scale in favor of President Trump and putting American democracy in peril. She called the majority's opinion in the blockbuster case involving birthright citizenship, issued on the final day of the term, 'an existential threat to the rule of law.' Justice Jackson, 54, is the court's newest member, having just concluded her third term. Other justices have said it took them years to find their footing, but Justice Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, quickly emerged as a forceful critic of her conservative colleagues and, lately, their approach to the Trump agenda. Her opinions, sometimes joined by no other justice, have been the subject of scornful criticism from the right and have raised questions about her relationships with her fellow justices, including the other two members of its liberal wing. 'She's breaking the fourth wall, speaking beyond the court,' said Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University. 'She is alarmed at what the court is doing and is sounding that in a different register, one that is less concerned with the appearance of collegiality and more concerned with how the court appears to the public.' Her slashing critiques sometimes seemed to test her colleagues' patience, culminating in an uncharacteristic rebuke from Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the case arising from Mr. Trump's effort to ban birthright citizenship. In that case, the majority sharply limited the power of district court judges to block presidential orders, even if they are patently unconstitutional. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
26-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Bill Moyers, Presidential Aide and Veteran of Public TV, Dies at 91
Bill Moyers, who served as chief spokesman for President Lyndon B. Johnson during the American military buildup in Vietnam and then went on to a long and celebrated career as a broadcast journalist, returning repeatedly to the subject of the corruption of American democracy by money and power, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 91. His son William Cope Moyers confirmed the death, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. To Americans who grew up after the 1960s, Mr. Moyers was known above all as an unusual breed of television correspondent and commentator. He was once described by Peter J. Boyer, the journalist and author, as 'a rare and powerful voice, a kind of secular evangelist.' But before that, Mr. Moyers was President Johnson's closest aide. Present on Air Force One in Dallas when Johnson took the oath of office after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Moyers played a pivotal role in the inception of Johnson's Great Society programs, and was the president's top administrative assistant and press secretary when Johnson sent hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in the Vietnam War. Mr. Moyers resigned from the administration in December 1966 at age 32, finalizing an irreparable falling out between the hot-tempered, flamboyant Johnson, who demanded unwavering loyalty, and the cool, self-contained Mr. Moyers, whom Johnson had denied several foreign policy positions. The two men never reconciled. In his 1971 memoir, 'The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969,' Johnson mentioned Mr. Moyers only fleetingly, reducing him to little more than a footnote. In his four decades as a television correspondent and commentator, Mr. Moyers, an ordained Baptist minister, explored issues ranging from poverty, violence, income inequality and racial bigotry to the role of money in politics, threats to the Constitution and climate change. His documentaries and reports won him the top prizes in television journalism, more than 30 Emmy Awards and comparisons to Edward R. Murrow, his revered predecessor at CBS. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
