— Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) said he is considering a 2022 gubernatorial run, setting up a potential challenge against incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), The Hill reports.
“Perhaps the most alarming thing that came out of Iowa this week was not the incompetence of the party and the failed technology that leaves us still in the dark as to the final results of the caucus… what should most concern us is that turnout might have barely kept pace with 2016 levels, and fell well below the historic turnout of 2008. We’re in the middle of a national emergency, and people are staying home.”
A new Fox News poll shows Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with 32%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 22%, Bernie Sanders at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 4% and Beto O’Rourke at 3%. When you combine first and second choices, Biden and Warren are tied at 45% each, with Sanders at 34%. In general election matchups, Biden leads Trump by 50% to 40%, Warren tops him 50% to 40% and Sanders is ahead 49% to 40%.
“Beto’s one human being. He gave his own opinion, OK? I think it was very harmful to make it look like all the Democrats. I can tell you one thing: Beto O’Rourke’s not taking my guns away from me. You tell Beto that, OK?”
A new CNN poll found Beto O’Rourke leads President Trump by 10 points in a hypothetical general election matchup, 52% to 42%. O’Rourke held the widest lead over Trump among other Democratic presidential candidates who were included in the potential matchup. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden tied for second place behind O’Rourke, with each leading Trump by 6 points.
A new Morning Consult survey of Democratic primary voters finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic field with 29%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 27%, Kamala Harris at 10%, Beto O’Rourke at 7% and Elizabeth Warren at 7%.
Nate Silver thinks Beto O’Rourke has the best shot at being someone’s running mate on the 2020 Democratic ticket. “Here’s why: 1) There’s about a 55 percent chance (per Betfair) that the nominee will not be a white dude. 2) If the nominee is not a white dude, the VP probably will be a white dude. 3) The other white dudes are too old (Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders) or would cost Democrats a Senate seat (Sherrod Brown). Hence, Beto.”
An early straw poll of members of the progressive group MoveOn.org shows a wide-open competition for liberal voters in the forthcoming 2020 Democratic presidential contest, NBC News reports. The most popular potential candidate was Beto O’Rourke at 15.6%, followed by joe Biden at 14.9%, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders with 13.1%.
“I look forward to welcoming Beto to the Brookland Baptist Church. I would love to be there to see if he can clap on beat.”
— Former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers (D), quoted by the New York Times, on whether Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) can appeal to black voters in the South.
Most authoritarians support their regime with propaganda,
It scores points with other dictators to whom they pander.
But Trump’s the kind of guy
Who likes to use AI,
Which is why his odious output qualifies as “slopaganda.”
“They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no air defenses. Their leadership is fractured. They have hyperinflation, their currency is worthless, and they’re having trouble making payroll… I guess other than that, they’re doing well.”
— Secretary of State Marco Rubio, quoted by the New York Post, on Iran.
“If President Trump’s ambition is realized, a triumphal arch will thrust its way into this murmuring conversation like a boastful bore crashing into a huddle of friends swapping stories about a loved one at a wake …. Heavy-handed and overbearing, it would pervert the significance of this uniquely meaningful place, forcing visitors to see these two sites through a crass and generalized assertion of victory and triumph.”
“This is a gem sitting there. I think the Democrats … have been episodic in touching it, rather than front and center. Corruption as part of the affordability narrative is more chess, where affordability alone is more checkers.”
— Rahm Emanuel told Semafor that Democrats “should sharpen their arguments about President Donald Trump’s self-dealing while in office — by hitching them to affordability-focused messaging.”
Quinnipiac Poll: “Sixty-one percent of Americans think the United States today is not living up to the ideal stated in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, while 35 percent think the United States today is living up to that ideal.”
CBS News: “Some 54% of Latino voters plan to vote for a Democratic House candidate in November, and 27% plan to vote for a Republican, with 19% undecided, according to the poll of 3,000 registered Latino voters, which was conducted nationally and across 32 competitive congressional districts …. That 54% figure lines up exactly with the Democratic share of the Latino vote in the 2024 House elections, according to exit polls that year — which is a notable drop from previous cycles. Democrats won 60% of the Latino House vote in 2022, 63% in 2020 and 69% in 2018.”
Wall Street Journal: “Consumer prices rose 3.8% in April from a year earlier, a clear impact of higher gas prices since the start of the war with Iran. … The figures, reported Tuesday by the Labor Department, surpassed the previous month’s reported increase of 3.3%. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected inflation of 3.7%.”
A survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by YouGov on behalf of NewsGuard found that 24 percent believe the foiled attack by a gunman on April 25 was not a real attempt to kill Trump, the Daily Beast Reports. When expanded to include those who believe the assassination attempt was staged or are “unsure,” the figure rises significantly to 56 percent. Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) also believe that at least one of the assassination attempts against the president—the WHCD dinner incident, the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, or the foiled attack at one of Trump’s Florida golf courses in September 2024—was staged.