Category Archives: Republican

KENILWORTH Voting is a big deal for Republicans.

Ever since Donald Trump claimed, and, in fact, continues to claim that last years election was rigged, some Republicans all acrossthe land have been suspicious of voting itself.

And that popped up Tuesday evening when Jack Ciattarelli held a town hall at a veterans center in this Union County town.

A woman in the crowd of about 100 asked if the state uses Dominion voting machines.

Trump and his supporters have waged a sort of war againstDominion since last fall, The company is fighting backwith lawsuits.

This can be a troubling matter for Ciattarelli. If some Republicans trulybelieve the game is crooked, why bother voting?

You can see the problem. Democrats, who haveno concerns in this regard, are going to vote.

So, Ciattarelli did his best to put thisproblem to rest.

He said Dominion machines are used in Ocean County, which Trump won big last year.

He also pointed out that all 21 counties have boards of electionwithequal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. Ciattarelli said he trusts those board members to oversee an honest election.

His bottom line: Voters should not care about machines or who owns them, just go out and vote!

This seems to be a critical time for Ciattarelli.

Phil Murphy is travelling the state inspecting flood damage and trying to comfort and deliver aid to residents. On Tuesday, Murphy was with President Biden in Manville

Ciattarelli, who holds no office, cant by definition deliver anything of substance at the moment.

Still, hes trying to make a point, criticizing Murphy for waiting too long to declare a state of emergency.

One problem with that line of attack is that a state of emergency is really a

bureaucratic action that has no immediate impact. Its not as if a declaration from Trenton would have held back the rain.

No matter, this is a way for Ciattarelli to remain visible when his opponent is getting all the attention.

Other than voting and the storm, Ciattarelli stayed on familiar topics during his hour-long meeting with residents, all of whom seemed supportive.

He condemned Murphys liberal extremism and reiterated his support for the Second Amendment, pro-life measures and a revised school aid formula that he says would lower property taxes for many.

Asked specifically what executive orders of Murphy he would undo, Ciattarelli didnt directly answer, but he did say that the incumbent has abused his power by issuing far too many orders.

Public polls show Ciattarelli behind by double digits and Democrats in the state outnumber Republicans by more than a million.

This doesnt seem to trouble the GOP gubernatorial candidate.

Im not the sacrificial lamb of the Republican Party, he said. Im in it to win it.

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Ciattarellli: 'I'm not the Sacrificial Lamb of the Republican Party' - InsiderNJ

(*This story was updated at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, 9/7/21, to include comment from the Department of State.)

Saying hes doubtful the state agency responsible for election oversight will cooperate with a taxpayer-funded investigation into Pennsylvanias two most recent elections, the top Senate Republican expects subpoenas will be the next step.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, isnt hopeful acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid will participate in the first hearing as part of a probe into the 2020 general and 2021 primary elections.

Currently scheduled for Thursday, the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee meeting will focus on guidance issued by the Department of State to counties during the 2020 election.

My guess is she wont come, Corman said of Degraffenreid during a podcast interview with former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon. If they do not come in and cooperate, then we will begin to issue subpoenas to get the information that were looking for from the Department of State.

A spokesperson for the Department of State told the Capital-Star that no one from the agency will participate in the hearing, saying that it directly relates to ongoing litigation filed against the department by members of the General Assembly.

Corman accused Degraffenreid, who took over after former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar resigned in February, of intimidating county leaders since the review began, citing a July directive that bans third-party access to election equipment.

Corman, who has argued that there were election irregularities in 2020, tapped Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson, to replace Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, as the panels chairperson.

Dush invited the Department of State and local officials to testify. The 11-member panel also invited the public to submit any potential violations of election law or voting irregularities they have witnessed personally to an online form. The committee could ask those who submit information to sign an affidavit and testify under oath at a future hearing.

In an August statement, Dush said the purpose of the investigation is to uncover information for potential legislative action. His office has referred questions about the review to Corman, who said the review is not a recount.

Jason Thompson, a spokesperson for Corman, told the Capital-Star that the taxpayers will be paying for the probe. He added that the panel will also incorporate hearings conducted by the Senate State Government Committee, which began last month with testimony from the Department of State, as part of the investigation.

But if the Department of State fails to participate in Thursdays hearing, Corman said the Senate panel should quickly issue subpoenas to acquire election information.

I dont want to get too far in front of Cris Dush, but that would be my intention and my desire, Corman told Bannon. Again, I think we have to be prepared that theyre not going to cooperate.

Two post-election reviews a statistical sampling required by law and a risk-limiting audit were conducted after the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. Sixty-three out of the commonwealths 67 counties participated in the risk-limiting audit pilot, and neither assessment found evidence of fraud.

Certified results show that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election by 80,555 votes in Pennsylvania. In the same cycle, Republicans triumphed in state races maintaining their legislative majorities in Harrisburg.

The latest review also comes after the House State Government Committee hosted 10 hearings with 52 testifiers on the 2020 general election.

Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, is the only GOP senator to publicly oppose the review, which could resemble the controversial Republican-backed election investigation in Arizona.

In July, Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, and Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, sent a letter to Corman and Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, urging them to stop the review. Costa and Williams sit on the committee responsible for the investigation. Gov. Tom Wolf called the investigation a disgrace to democracy, and Attorney General Josh Shapiro dubbed it a sham that will create chaos and promised to challenge the review legally.

The attorney general was on the ballot the last election as well, so he sort of has a conflict, Corman told Bannon. Our auditor general, a Republican who was elected, who we asked to do an audit, said he didnt feel that he could do it because he was on the ballot the last election.

Six lawmakers, who sit on the Senate committee, were elected during the 2020 general election, including Sens. Scott Hutchinson, R-Venango, David Argall, R-Schuylkill, Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, Dush, Costa, and Mastriano.

Were going to invite county employees, county officials, who may have a story to tell about how things went down on Election Day, Corman said, noting that he isnt sure which counties the committee will focus on. Were not subpoenaing their information as of yet, but well probably get to that point soon.

He added: If we have to get emails, if we have to get communications, we want to know.

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Top Pa. Senate Republican expects subpoenas will be necessary for election investigation - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 4, 2020. Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed Army veteran Joe Kent's bid to unseat Republican U.S. Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who was among the few in her party who voted to impeach Trump in January.

Trump has promised to help Republicans win control of Congress in the November 2022 elections and is also working to replace his Republican critics in Congress with loyalists.

Herrera Beutler was among 10 Republican lawmakers who joined House Democrats in a January vote to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection in a fiery speech ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by his supporters.

Trump in February endorsed a former aide who is challenging Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, who also voted to impeach.

The former president has also backed a Republican challenging Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was among the seven Republicans in that chamber who voted with Democrats in a failed attempt to convict Trump.

Trump said in a statement that Herrera Beutler's impeachment vote was "against the Republican Party" and that Kent, if elected, would "be a warrior for the America First agenda."

Herrera Beutler's campaign manager, Parker Truax, brushed off Trump's comments, noting that the lawmaker outperformed Trump in her district in the 2016 and 2020 elections. In January, Herrera Beutler said "the president of the United States incited a riot" and that the evidence against him was "indisputable."

She has represented Washington's 3rd Congressional District since 2011 and won re-election in 2020 with 56% of the vote.

Herrera Beutler has also easily led the Republican field at campaign fundraising, ending June with over $1 million in the bank.

Kent, whose campaign website touts his allegiance to Trump, had just over $500,000, second to Herrera Beutler among the five Republican candidates who filed campaign finance disclosures for the period.

Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Trump backs opponent of Republican House member who voted to impeach him - Reuters

I am writing to ask you to join me in supporting Rachel Jones as a candidate for the Green Springs District Board of Supervisors position. I have known Rachel for 15 years. She is an individual of courage, compassion, and a passion for the future success of the County of Louisa.

Rachel has always impressed me with her seemingly endless energy. Rachel is a wife and mother. She understands the importance of family. Rachel has worked hard through her former church, Zion United Methodist, to provide children of Louisa support programs including basketball, Scouts, and camps. She was our grandsons first preschool teacher. She showed love and compassion while enriching his early learning years. I mentioned Rachels passion. She is a self-starter who does not waiver. Once she commits, she succeeds. Dont take my word for it, Rachel has received statewide recognition as an Allen and Allen Hometown Hero for her support of the community.

Rachel is also passionate in supporting the men and women of law enforcement. She is concerned about the defunding efforts of so many radical groups. Having served as a law officer locally and in Charlottesville, Rachel has first-hand experience in the daily challenges facing law enforcement. Rachel is committed to keeping Louisa a prosperous and peaceful community by supporting law enforcement through funding programs and board focus. She is aware of the ever-growing challenges being experienced by the brave individuals who serve our community.

Another area of passion involves our first responder and EMS personnel. A close cousin to law enforcement, Rachel recognizes the selfless, personal, and family sacrifices the men and women of EMS make to the citizens of Louisa. On the board, she will champion the needs of EMS in equipment, technology, and training. She will allow EMS to focus on patient care.

With two children in the Louisa school system, education and student viability is a big focal area for Rachel. She constantly speaks about how proud she is of the Louisa school system. She recognizes dedicated employees who serve to educate and grow our children. As a parent and longtime Louisa citizen, she is committed to a fair and equitable education system that serves the needs of ALL students without political agendas.

Rachel takes pride in Louisa County. She recently called out the problem of dumping and trash on the roadside in her district. This was not a campaign effort but a problem observation. Since that time, the attention she brought to the issue of trash and dumping has resulted in clean-up efforts. Rachel is a self-starter who will make a difference.

Rachel is courageous. Running for political office is hard work, but Rachel sees the need for improvement. Rachel is a fixer who when faced with a problem goes into action. She is tireless and strives for success. We need her focus, energy, and local perspective to make a difference in Louisa. So again, please join me in supporting Rachel in her quest to become our next board of supervisors representative for the Green Springs district. She will make a difference.

I encourage you to vote for Rachel Jones, Green Springs District Supervisor!

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Backs Republican in Green Springs - The Central Virginian

Gerald Ford supported abortion rights. George H. W. Bush supported abortion rights for the first two decades of his political career. As governor of California, Ronald Reagan signed one of the most permissive abortion laws in the nation.

Over the four decades since 1980, however, the Republican Party has coalesced around a more radical brand of abortion politics. This week, the Republican-appointed majority on the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state of Texas to impose the most restrictive abortion law since Roe v. Wade constitutionalized abortion rights in 1973.

This result has provoked dismay, and not only from the Texas women who will be surveilled and policed by the law. Yet the Supreme Courts permission to Texas Republicans to proceed with their scheme should be welcomedincluding by those who support abortion rightsas the crucial step toward a resolution of a half-century-long national culture war.

Pre-Texas, opposition to abortion offered Republican politicians a lucrative, no-risk political option. They could use pro-life rhetoric to win support from socially conservative voters who disliked Republican economic policy, and pay little price for it with less socially conservative voters who counted on the courts to protect abortion rights for them.

Mary Ziegler: The deviousness of Texass new abortion law

Pre-Texas, Republican politicians worried a lot about losing a primary to a more pro-life opponent, but little about a backlash if they won the primary by promising to criminalize millions of American women.

That one-way option has just come to an end. Most American voters have quietly understood for a long time that most politicians who claim to be pro-life are hypocrites. These politicians do not really mean what they say, or anyway, they do not really intend to do what they say. You might imagine that this assumption of hypocrisy would hurt. Sometimes it has. More often, though, it has protected politicians from accountability for the policies they advocate.

Today, accountability has suddenly arrived. Texas Republicans have just elevated abortion rights to perhaps the states supreme ballot issue in 2022. Perhaps they have calculated correctly. Perhaps a Texas voting majority really wants to see the reproductive lives of Texas women restrained by random passersby. If thats the case, thats an important political fact, and one that will reshape the politics of the country in 2024.

But its also possible that Texas Republicans have miscalculated. Instead of narrowly failing again and again, feeding the rage of their supporters against shadowy and far-away cultural enemies, abortion restricters have finally, actually, and radically got their way. They have all but outlawed abortion in the nations second-largest state, and voted to subject women to an intrusive and intimate regime of supervision and control not imposed on men. At last, a Republican legislative majority has enacted its declared beliefs in almost their fullest formand won permission from the courts to impose its will on the women of its state.

This is a new reality, and one that opens a way for the prolonged U.S. abortion-rights debate to be resolved. If the Texas Republicans prosper politically, then abortion-rights advocates must accept that the country truly is much more conservative on abortion than they appreciated and adjust their goals accordingly. But if not, and Im guessing that the answer is not, anti-abortion-rights politicians are about to feel the shock of their political lives. For the first time since the 1970s, they will have to reckon with mobilized opposition that also regards abortion as issue No. 1 in state and local politics.

Read: What Texas abortion foes want next

The abortion debate is often analogized to the debate over alcohol prohibition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For almost 70 years, from the 1850s to the 1920s, Americans battled passionately but inconclusively over how to regulate booze. The debate ended only after the prohibitionists won their seemingly decisive victory: the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 followed by the Volstead Act. For a dozen years, metropolitan America lived under rules imposed by non-metropolitan America. Then the whole experiment utterly collapsed. Alcohol prohibition failed so dismally, both in practice and in politics, that even the prohibitionists had to surrender. Only then could the United States move to a stable equilibrium of national legality bounded by locally acceptable regulations.

History never repeats itself. But theres already compelling evidence that Texas Republicans understand how detested their new abortion law will soon benot only in New York City and Los Angeles, but also in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth. They took the precaution of preceding the nations most restrictive abortion law with one of the nations most suppressive voting laws. Its as if they could foresee what Texas would do to them if all qualified Texans could vote. But the Texas voting law only impedes voting; it does not prevent it. The 2020 election showed that voter suppression can only do so much to protect a sufficiently unpopular incumbent.

In the off-year elections of 2014, Republicans won a huge victory. In 2018, they suffered a huge defeat. The crucial difference was turnout: 2014 saw the lowest turnout since 1942; 2018 saw the highest in a nonpresidential year since before World War I. The moral of the story would seem to be that Republicans do best when the electorate is satisfied and quiet; they face disaster when the electorate is mobilized and angry. Texas Republicans have just bet their political future in a rapidly diversifying and urbanizing state on a gambit: cultural reaction plus voter suppression. The eyes of Texas will be upon them indeed. The eyes of the nation will be upon them too.

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Why Texas Republicans Abortion Ban Could Backfire - The Atlantic

Donald Trump had a habit of issuing vague threats that, in their hazy, overheated menace, usually sounded like something a childs idea of a tough guy might say. These comminations were often too strange, too difficult to parse to intimidate as the former president intended. And yet, they still inspired alarm for what they revealedor affirmedabout the mental state of the man who was leading the nation. He may have thought he was sending a message to the people investigating him and his campaign; in reality, though, he was basically typing all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy over and over, in different configurations, onto his Twitter feed.

Facing their own investigation into their culpability for the January 6 riot their boss incited, the GOP has adopted this same, embarrassing bully tacticand, as when Trump himself deployed the strategy, the scariest thing about it is what it underscores about the kookiness and cravenness of those doing the threatening. On Monday, the House panel investigating the pro-Trump attack on Capitol Hill called on phone companies to preserve communications records related to January 6, including, perhaps, those of Trump and some Republican lawmakers. That outraged members of the GOP like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that telecommunications companies will be shut down if they comply with requests from Representative Bennie Thompson, the chair of the select committee probing the riot.

Thats a promise, Greene said.

The threat was not limited to the ever-expanding fringes of the party, where Greene and other MAGA acolytes thrive. Hours earlier, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington, handed down his own ominous warning to the companies, tweeting that a Republican majority will not forget if they cooperate with the committee request. Its hard to know what, exactly, that means, how the GOP would go about punishing private companies for obeying a congressional subpoena, or how doing so would not constitute a far greater government overreach than the one they claim Democrats are committing. The idea here isnt really to make sense, though; in fact, logic and clarity would only detract from the aim of such threats, which is to flood the zone with shit, as Trump strategist Steve Bannon once explained, until efforts to hold people accountable and efforts to evade accountability seem indistinguishable from one another. Russian Collusion Hoax 2.0, Congressman Mo Brooks, one of the chief instigators of the January 6 attack, tweeted Monday. Why not subpoena Socialists who support BLM & ANTIFA?

Brooks, who has good reason to oppose the investigation, sought to cast the panel in that tweet as a group of socialists and Pelosi Republicans like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheneytwo staunch conservatives who have nevertheless been exiled from their party for having the temerity to object to Trump. It may be true that no pro-Trump Republicans are on the panel. But that is because three of those that McCarthy tried to install on it, before rescinding all five appointments, were election objectors who helped promote the big lie that led to the attack in question. One of the McCarthy picks, Jim Banks, went to even more absurd lengths than some of his colleagues in condemning the panel, suggesting that congressional investigators themselves should be punished for what he said in a letter to Thompson and the communications firms was an authoritarian undertaking with no conceivable legislative purpose.

When we win back the majority next year, Banks told Carlson on Fox News last week, we have a duty as Republicans to hold every member of this committee accountable for this abuse of power, for stepping over the line.

The idea that it is an abuse of power to conduct an investigation into a violent attack on the Capitol but not for the president or his allies to encourage that very attack is obviously absurd. Then again, absurdity has been a remarkably effective tool in advancing the project of Trumpism, even if it hasnt always been wielded intentionally. Trump has always acted on his most obvious and immediate intereststo avoid investigation, to save face after a clear electoral failure, to cling to power. Those ends may not have been achieved, but the means are still being embraced by his party as they seek to elude responsibility for their own actions and to use his election lies for their own purposesincluding the passage of draconian voter suppression laws, as Texas just did after a protracted fight with state Democrats. Thats an indictment of the GOP, yes, but also of a political culture in which such desperate acts of self-preservation could manage to prevail.

Originally posted here:

Republicans Are Trying to Bully Their Way Out of Accountability for January 6 - Vanity Fair

Heritage Capital CIO Paul Schatz joined AmeriVet Securities Head of Rates Greg Faranello and Principal of The Fitz-Gerald Group Keith Fitz-Gerald arguing that no economy was created to have a 'ginormous safety net.'

While blue states languish in an economic slump, those led by Republicans are steadily rebounding. The data is clear: States with GOP leadership are showing stronger job recovery and lower unemployment.

According to July numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Republican governorshead16 of the top 20 states with thelowest unemployment rates. Likewise, 18 of these states have Republican-controlled legislatures.

On the other hand, states dominated by Democrats have shown little improvement. The 10 states with the highest unemployment rates are all led by Democrats.

The difference lies in policies. Most blue states continue to offer an extra $300 per week in supplemental benefits in addition to regular state unemployment benefits.This pandemic bonuswhich isnt set to expire untilSept. 6, 2021isdiscouraging people from looking for work.

REPUBLICANS RIP BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FOR MASSIVE FOOD STAMPS INCREASE: 'ABUSING ITS AUTHORITY'

Americans are receiving about $630in weekly unemployment benefits. Thats more than $32,000 annuallyroughly double the nation's minimum wage. Its no wonder that as many as 1.8 million Americans have turned down jobs. Unemployment benefits are far more lucrative. Joe Biden and Democrats are incentivizing people not to work.

Oursmall businesses are bearing the brunt of these policies. Unfilled job openings are at arecord highand employers are struggling to fill open positions. Despite 63% of small businesses in aJuly surveysaying they were currently or trying to hire, 89% of this group said there are few or no "qualified job applicants."

On top of this, President Joe Bidens disastrous, inflationary economic policies are squandering the economic recovery he inherited. Our workers, families, and small businesses are now paying more for "just about everything."

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Rapidly rising prices for everyday goods have completelyswampedany wage growth, with paychecks actually shrinking last month after inflation is factored in.

Nonetheless, Biden and Democrats in Congress are still trying to slam the American people with more recklesstaxes and spending.

Meanwhile, at least25 Republican-led statesfrom Alaska to New Hampshire have announced they will no longer pay citizens to stay home.

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Arizona has gone one step further: Gov. Doug Duceyunveileda $2,000 back-to-work bonus for eligible individuals "with a goal of getting as many Arizonans as possible to rejoin the workforce by Labor Day." The state will also provide community college scholarships for adult education programs, childcare for returning workers, and housing assistance to combat homelessness.

Innovative solutions like these will help our country bounce back to its pre-pandemic status.

Disincentivizing work is un-American and will have lasting, long-term consequences. The stability of our economy and the vitality of our nation is at stake.

Thankfully, red states are leading the way to a robust recovery.

Ronna McDaniel is Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. Follow her on Twitter @GOPChairwoman.

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RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: Here's why Republican states lead the US economic recovery - Fox Business

Todays Theme

If you havent seen this theme type before, you might be puzzling over the clues. They hint at only part of each answer. And what are those circles for?

The key, as usual, is in the revealer at 60A. The clue reads On and on or how to read 18-, 27-, 37- and 51-Across to understand this puzzles theme? and the answer is ENDLESSLY. And its not merely an answer; its an explanation about those circles.

The circled letters are at the beginning and end of each theme entry, and we are instructed to think about them endlessly. That does not mean you have to keep this puzzle in front of you for the rest of your life. It means that you have to remove each end of the entry to get the answer to the clue.

Say it with me now: Ohhhh.

Lets look at 18A. The clue is Fencers cry, and the answer, of course is ZEN GARDEN. That would make for a very silly fencing match, so lets take off the first and last letters the ones in those circles. We end up with EN GARDE, a much more cromulent answer.

One of the tougher ones may be 37A, although your mileage may vary. The answer to the clue Spot for a dinner plate is STABLEMATE, which is not a suggestion to eat your dinner plate off the back of a horse (again, your mileage may vary. You do you.). Its an instruction to remove each end of the answer, which leaves you with TABLE MAT. Thats not as in-the-language for Americans as place mat, but its certainly discernible.

I made this puzzle last August, around the time I decided to use wordplay as a motive for learning to code again. I still cant make a website or a video game, but I can find all the words in a list that dont have the letter E in them in under a minute, so I would say I achieved my goal.

I really enjoy constructing themes like this one because its a good excuse to spend a few hours looking through lists of words with special properties. And while few of them translate into anything worthy of a theme, sometimes things work out. While the concept of removing letters can be a bit basic for a Thursday, I hope that the vivid fill and the fact that solvers have to figure out the end letters from the crossings should make up for it. Ill also be interested to see how well solvers know TABLE MAT, which my British-born parents knew well, but which the dictionaries felt a bit more skittish about.

A bit about me: Im a fourth-year linguistics major at U.C. Santa Cruz, my hobbies are photography, GarageBand and trying my best at piano, and Ive been making crosswords for about a year and a half now.

This puzzle is my Times debut, and Im really excited to contribute to this community. I hope you all enjoy it!

The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.

For tips on how to get started, read our series, How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.

Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? Weve got you covered.

Warning: There be spoilers ahead, but subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.

Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.

Your thoughts?

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NYT Crossword Answers: Harold Who Sought the Republican Presidential Nomination Nine Times - The New York Times

Security experts say that election hardware and software should be subjected to transparency and rigorous testing, but only by credentialed professionals. Yet nearly all of the partisan reviews have flouted such protocols and focused on the 2020 results rather than hunting for security flaws.

In Arizona, the firm chosen by the Republican-led Legislature, Cyber Ninjas, had no previous experience auditing elections, and its chief executive has promoted conspiracy theories claiming that rigged voting machines cost Mr. Trump the state. The company also used Republican partisans to help conduct its review in Maricopa County, including one former lawmaker who was at the Jan. 6 protest in Washington that preceded the Capitol riot.

In Wisconsin, the Republican Assembly speaker, Robin Vos, is pushing for a review of the 2020 results to be led by a former State Supreme Court justice who claimed in November that the election had been stolen. And in Pennsylvania, the Republican leader of the State Senate has announced hearings that he likened to a forensic investigation of the election, saying it could include issuing subpoenas to seize voting machines and ballots.

Christopher Krebs, the former head of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said such reviews could easily compromise voting machines. The main concern is having someone unqualified come in and introduce risk, introduce something or some malware into a system, he said. You have someone that accesses these things, has no idea what to do, and once youve reached that point, its incredibly difficult to kind of roll back the certification of the machine.

Decertifying machines effectively means replacing them, often in a hurry and at great cost. Philadelphias elections board rejected an earlier G.O.P. request for access to the citys election machines, saying it would cost more than $35 million to buy new ones.

In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, told Maricopa County in May that her office would decertify 385 machines and nine vote tabulators that had been handed over for the G.O.P.-led election review.

The issue with the equipment is that the chain of custody was lost, Ms. Hobbs said in an interview. The chain of custody ensures that only authorized people have access to it, so that that vulnerability cant be exploited.

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How G.O.P. Election Reviews Created a New Security Threat - The New York Times

By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed Army veteran Joe Kent's bid to unseat Republican U.S. Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who was among the few in her party who voted to impeach Trump in January.

Trump has promised to help Republicans win control of Congress in the November 2022 elections and is also working to replace his Republican critics in Congress with loyalists.

Herrera Beutler was among 10 Republican lawmakers who joined House Democrats in a January vote to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection in a fiery speech ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by his supporters.

Trump in February endorsed a former aide who is challenging Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, who also voted to impeach.

The former president has also backed a Republican challenging Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was among the seven Republicans in that chamber who voted with Democrats in a failed attempt to convict Trump.

Trump said in a statement that Herrera Beutler's impeachment vote was "against the Republican Party" and that Kent, if elected, would "be a warrior for the America First agenda."

Herrera Beutler's campaign manager, Parker Truax, brushed off Trump's comments, noting that the lawmaker outperformed Trump in her district in the 2016 and 2020 elections. In January, Herrera Beutler said "the president of the United States incited a riot" and that the evidence against him was "indisputable."

She has represented Washington's 3rd Congressional District since 2011 and won re-election in 2020 with 56% of the vote.

Herrera Beutler has also easily led the Republican field at campaign fundraising, ending June with over $1 million in the bank.

Kent, whose campaign website touts his allegiance to Trump, had just over $500,000, second to Herrera Beutler among the five Republican candidates who filed campaign finance disclosures for the period.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney)

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Trump backs opponent of Republican House member who voted to impeach him - Yahoo News