Lindsey Graham & Jaime Harrison are debating in 5 minutes (& both are wearing a mask while the debate starts on stage — would Graham have a few days ago?). #scsen
Graham’s introductory statement invokes “conservative judges and liberal judges, order and chaos.”
That was quick: the first question was about people breaking health guidelines at the White House & COVID-19.
Graham’s answer: “the virus started in China, not Trump tower.”
And then pivots to vowing that Barrett will be confirmed. As part of the same answer. One goal.
Second question? Graham asked about COVID, again, and specifically about schools & delay in test results.
Graham’s answer? Liberal agenda, Biden, Medicare-for-all, SCOTUS.
Harrison has talked about COVID.
Candidates asked about Roe v. Wade & potential of its overturning.
Harrison says women should have the right to control their own body; men do, he says.
Graham does not answer about Roe specifically but talks about Amy Barrett a lot.
Aha: Harrison, while hitting Graham for flip-flopping on SCOTUS timing, specifically points out Graham’s most grotesque lie — that he changed his mind on timing due to Kavanaugh hearings, when Graham made his viral statement AFTER that!
Graham doesn’t bother rebutting that.
Folks, Graham keeps talking about how bipartisan he is on judges because he voted for Kagan and Sotomayor & respects that presidents have the constitutional authority to appoint a justice for their full 4 years, not 3.5.
Guess what name has gone unmentioned.
The candidates haven’t interrupted each other a single time!
There’s 90-seconds answer blocs!
Who knew this was possible!
(Also if you care about SC politics read about why Charleston’s prosecutor race is one of year’s most intriguing: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…)
Graham says the way to “save Social Security” is for some people to (volontarily?) be willing who to get less Social Security.
Harrison hits him on this, says this isn’t about keeping a promise, it’s about giving people what they’re owed.
Graham laments that Harrison has gotten so much money in donations. This isn’t about Harrison, he says. “This is about liberals hating my guts.”
Graham invokes Senator Scott to justify his view on policing.
Harrison: “Senator Scott is not the only black person who understands interactions with the police... There are problems right now...”
Candidates were asked about term limits and whether there should be any.
Graham’s answer takes him to talking about undocumented immigrants (?! I didn’t follow)
Harrison says: “google Lindsey Graham and term limits,” stressing Graham has broken his past pledge to limit himself.
It’s worth watching Jaime Harrison talk about why South Carolina needs the Medicaid expansion.
Graham says in response that Obamacare is a pathway to “Berniecare.”
Constant refrain from Graham to invoke Schumer, Pelosi, Sanders, and so on.
Candidates are asked what issues they disagree with THEIR OWN party on.
Graham says he’s bipartisan, then goes on to attack Democrats as “nuts”.
Harrison (transcribing quickly): “the first step to work with the other party is to not call them nuts.”
Out of nowhere, answering a Q on rural SC, Graham says Harrison has accused him of being racist, & attacks Harrison for being wealthy & “cashing in.”
Harrison answers saying Graham increased his salary while hindering extending unemployment benefits.
And... debate ends abruptly
And when he abruptly brought up the idea that he’s been accused of being racist (again, to an entirely unrelated question), Graham AGAIN name-checked Tim Scott as evidence that’s ludicrous.
I wouldn’t say this was a great debate bc Graham was intent on ignoring many questions so he could pivot to Schumer and Pelosi — but: real policy questions! no interruptions AT ALL! opportunities for some zingers! meaningful contrasts! (And a weirdly hurried end.)
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I skipped the headline story here assuming you've seen it elsewhere, but if not: the Arizona supreme court just declared abortion illegal. 12news.com/article/news/p…
Katie Hobbs, a Democratic governor, would have the power to appoint replacement if the justices are not retained. (Still, note that in Arizona governors choose within a list proposed by a commission.)
A thread about a messed up situation in Mississippi.
It's on how state officials have voided direct democracy thru an absurd excuse, and how they keep refusing to yield that power back to people.
The state constitution gives people the right to ballot initiatives.
It outlines how they should do so, & how they should collect signatures in each of MS's five congressional districts.
The language was written into the constitution in 1992.
In 2000, Mississippi lost a congressional district, down to four.
No one saw a problem with that until 2021: the state supreme court effectively said that, since there were no longer 5 districts in which to collect signatures, no ballot initiative could be valid.
Tomorrow is extraordinary busy election day... and you may have missed critical battles.
So here's a thread with the 15 races I'll watch most closely, across 4 states. It has some of everything: school boards, local politics, DAs, voting rights...
↓
1️⃣ Let's start with the Arkansas supreme court races.
Because they're so odd. 2 seats, 4 sitting justices running for them, none of which are their current occupants, plus two outsiders. Depending on the results, the big winner may be Huckabee Sanders.
2️⃣ Moving over to the Texas court of criminal appeals:
Ken Paxton & his far-right allies are targeting 3 GOP judges (Sharon Keller, Barbara Hervey, and Michelle Slaughter) who were part of a ruling that restricted Paxton’s ability to prosecute elections. texastribune.org/2023/12/13/ken…
not all about the Santos seat and Trump/Biden: there are a ton of critical elections coming up literally in coming weeks.
here are just four you should know about.
1. the former sheriff of Los Angeles, ousted after protecting police abuse, is trying a comeback in 3 weeks: boltsmag.org/los-angeles-co…
2. Cleveland's March primary for prosecutor is one of the most interesting of the spring, with two very distinct visions of criminal justice between the incumbent & his challenger. wrote a bit about it here. boltsmag.org/ohio-prosecuto…
NEW: It was just confirmed that Dauphin County, PA, home to Harrisburg , flipped to Democratic control in last week's elections. For the first time in 100+ years.
GOP incumbent conceded this am, h/t @pennslinger.
One reason this matters? Ballot access. See next tweet.
County officials in PA have a lot of discretion to design voting procedures. For instance, many GOP-run counties (like Dauphin) haven't allowed ballot curing.
Two things he mentioned: (1) wanting to expand the number of ballot drop boxes, & (2) wanting to make sure ballot curing is allowed & that the county proactively reaches out to people to inform them of a mistake.