A known white supremacist and pro-Confederacy advocate Michael Peroutka has just won the Republican nomination for Maryland’s attorney general position. Peroutka was once a member of the neo-Nazi “League of the South” group and is running on a “biblical worldview” political platform while still being upset that Maryland wasn’t able to secede from the Union during the civil war. John Iadarola and Jessica Burbank discuss on The Young Turks.
“Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate activist who’s refused to disavow a racist group to which he once belonged, has won the Republican nominationto be Maryland’s next attorney general.
Peroutka, a former Anne Arundel County Council member, beat his opponent Jim Shalleck, a former state and federal prosecutor, on Tuesday. He’ll face Democrat Anthony Brownin November.
Even among the various far-right candidates the Republican Party has nominated across the country, Peroutka stands out for his extremism, holding views that would be alarming for anyone seeking public office ― let alone someone vying to be a state’s top law enforcement official.
As documented in a recent, extensive Vice News profile, Peroutka is part of a growing Christian nationalist coalition that’s tightening its grip on the GOP. He believes lawmakers should “take a biblical worldview and apply it to civil law and government.””
Stalwart liberal Bill Maher shows the world how far to the right he actually is nowadays. The largest online progressive news show in the world. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian.
I wonder now if he will come out with his clearly more than just a staffer boyfriend? Hugs
Madison Cawthorn’s campaign wasn’t supposed to touch the money it had for the general election. Guess what the campaign did.
Roger Sollenberger
Political Reporter
EXCLUSIVE
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
With two weeks to go until a primary election he was fated to lose, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) was already underwater. His campaign held more than twice as much debt as it had cash on hand, the donor well was dry, and he and his staff were months into a madcap spending streak that one campaign source called “baffling.”
And now, after indeed losing that primary, there’s no money to pay the piper.
Specifically, there’s no money to repay the supporters who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance to Cawthorn’s election efforts beyond the primary—to the general election he now won’t be competing in.
Cawthorn is required by law to refund those donations. Instead, according to a campaign source, the campaign already spent the money.
The public doesn’t know any of this yet, however, because the Cawthorn campaign is now a week late in submitting the quarterly Federal Election Commission report that would disclose the collapse. That delay will already trigger an automatic fine.
The breach of fiduciary obligations follows a string of personal and professional embarrassments that hounded the one-term congressman across the weeks and months leading up to his primary defeat—accusations of insider trading, multiple alleged ethics violations, unforced public gaffes, and photo and video leaks designed to humiliate him.
But the campaign’s financial washout is more than another embarrassment; it’s against the law.
“Nobody ever did the math, which baffled me because the spending was so outrageous,” the campaign source told The Daily Beast.
This person pointed to a spree of frivolous charges over the last year that all accelerated into 2022, such as $1,500 in “egregiously” frequent trips to Chick-Fil-A, almost $3,000 at a place called Papa’s Beer, three separate charges at a high-end cigar shop, $21,000 for lodging in Florida and—the biggest drain—hundreds of thousands of dollars in sky-high consulting and fundraising fees, including for Cawthorn’s friend and campaign manager, Blake Harp, who was drawing a salary beyond federal limits.
Cawthorn couldn’t raise money to offset this burn rate, which was so high that, by May 5, the campaign had just 2 percent of the $3.7 million it had raised since January 2021. In truth, the source said, the campaign had been forced to tap its general election account months ago.
Federal election laws allow candidates to raise money for the primary and the general election at the same time. But candidates can’t spend the general election funds unless they win the primary, first. If you don’t win, you have to repay those donors.
Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Daily Beat that there’s not much wiggle room, and Cawthorn will likely face consequences.
“There are few more ironclad rules in campaign finance than you can’t spend general election funds in a primary,” Libowitz said. “There are strict limits on how much may be given and spent in each. If Cawthorn spent funds raised for the general during the primary and made no attempt to refund the general donations, he’ll likely be in a lot of trouble with the FEC.”
According to available data, Cawthorn’s jilted donors include friends and neighbors in western North Carolina, nearly three dozen retirees from Bakersfield to Boca Raton, a former Army major, billionaire GOP megadonors Bernie Marcus, Steve Wynn, John Childs, and H. Ross Perot Jr, and powerful Republican colleagues, including political committees tied to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA).
Cawthorn owes them $220,080.85. As of May 5, the most recent snapshot available, his campaign had a little more than $137,000 on hand, and owed $325,000 in debt.
The campaign also failed to pay several vendors on time, according to two people with direct knowledge of the agreements.
Brendan Fischer, deputy director at good government watchdog Documented, agreed that the law is “clear-cut.”
“Candidates can’t use general election funds in the primary, and if the candidate loses their primary, they must return general election funds to maxed-out contributors within 60 days,” Fischer told The Daily Beast. “The law around this is clear-cut so the FEC will take violations pretty seriously.”
In Cawthorn’s case, the 60-day clock ran out last Saturday, the day after the report was due.
“There was just no money,” the campaign source said. “It was dollar-in, dollar-out. So if he loses it’s a really bad thing, and the only way to cover it is getting money straight from the candidate or treasurer.”
The treasurer, however, could also be on the hook for legal penalties. Cawthorn’s hired treasurer quit last Friday—the day the campaign report was due—with the freshman congressman personally taking his place.
But Cawthorn—who won a $3 million insurance settlement, and other payouts, for damages sustained in the 2014 wreck that paralyzed his legs—would also appear to have access to cash, and he has loaned his campaign money before. (Last week he dropped a $30 million lawsuit against his former best friend, who had been driving the car.)
Beth Rotman, director of ethics at watchdog Common Cause, told The Daily Beast there’s a third option.
“In practice, many people may start spending this money in the primary and pay it back; it’s a risk, but it may not be uncommon,” Rotman said, pointing out that the Cawthorn campaign can raise money to pay down its debts. “He needs to make this right by fundraising, and a lot of rules require that he do that staying within contribution limits.”
In essence, Cawthorn would be asking donors to pay his other donors for him. And the pool of enthusiastic Cawthorn supporters would appear limited, especially considering his top contributors are the people on the payback list.
Another option: Start a new campaign and forward the money.
The campaign source told The Daily Beast that this idea had been discussed internally, but Cawthorn balked.
“He didn’t want to run,” the person said.
On May 17, Cawthorn conceded the primary to state senator Chuck Edwards before all the votes were in. Two days later, he posted cryptically on Instagram, calling for “for Dark MAGA to truly take command” and including a list of right-wing figures he admired.
“This list includes the lion share [sic] of figures that came to my defense when it was not politically profitable,” Cawthorn wrote.
Among them was GOP strategist Alexander Bruesewitz. Cawthorn owes him $2,100.
A move certain to stoke further talk of Newsom’s larger ambitions.
Newsom has urged national Democrats to be more assertive as the U.S. Supreme Court has erased abortion rights and issued other sweeping rulings. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken out Texas newspaper ads assailing Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in a move certain to spur more chatter about Newsom’s potential presidential ambitions.
Newsom went after Abbott on his home turf weeks after doing the same with Florida television spots excoriating Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The moves intensified Newsom’s longstanding tactic of using red-state foils to extol California’s progressive agenda and amplified talk about Democrats eyeing White House runs as the party frets about President Joe Biden’s sinking poll numbers.
The full-page Texas newspaper advertisements — which ran in the El Paso Times, Houston Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman — edit a quote from Abbott about “the right to life” being lost to “abortions,” inserting the word “gun violence” instead — a direct rebuke to Abbott’s record on two highly charged issues.
Elevating the contrast, Newsom revealed the advertisements on the same morning he planned to sign legislation that allows Californians to sue illegal gun manufacturers. The bill is directly modeled on a Texas bill allowing people to sue abortion providers, and Newsom has framed it as a direct legal challenge to the conservative Supreme Court that allowed the Texas law to stand.
While Newsom has steadfastly denied he has any intention to seek the presidency in 2024, the Florida and Texas spots have allowed him to leap into the national conversation for a negligible cost. Newsom has urged national Democrats to be more assertive as the U.S. Supreme Court has erased abortion rights and issued other sweeping rulings.
The Texas spots cost about $30,000 — a tiny fraction of the more than $20 million Newsom has on hand for a reelection that’s all but assured. As with the Florida spot, Newsom gave an exclusive look at the Texas ads to a national publication in an effort to generate broad coverage.
Biden has been adamant that he will seek another term. But should Biden decide to step aside, Newsom’s path to the White House would likely be obstructed by Vice President Kamala Harris, a fellow Californian who shares a Bay Area base with Newsom.
Newsom spent last week meeting with White House officials and senators in Washington, D.C., where he lambasted Texas and Florida in a speech accepting an education award. He is set to mingle with other governors in Los Angeles on Friday evening for a Democratic Governors Association fundraiser.
Michigan Republican Tudor Dixon has said that instances of rape and incest are ‘perfect examples’ of why the United States is in need of a ban on abortions. Cenk Uygur and Jessica Burbank discuss on The Young Turks.
“Tudor Dixon, a leading Republican candidate for governor of Michigan, confirmed in a recent interview that her opposition to abortion rights extends even to a minor who is raped by a family member.
On an episode of Charlie LeDuff’s talk show, “The No BS Newshour,” that aired Friday, LeDuff pressed Dixon, a conservative commentator and former steel industry executive, on whether her support for a strict abortion ban would apply to the most extreme cases.
By way of example, LeDuff proposed the hypothetical case of a 14-year-old girl who becomes pregnant after her uncle rapes her.
“Yeah, perfect example,” Dixon interjected.
“You’re saying carry that?” LeDuff asked, finishing his question.
Dixon replied that she would expect that girl to carry the baby to term and that she only supports allowing an abortion when a mother’s life is in danger.
“I know people who are the product ― a life is a life for me. That’s how it is,” Dixon concluded.”
The House passed legislation on Thursday which would codify Americans’ right to contraception on the national level, in preparation for the Supreme Court to make it their next target. Cenk Uygur and Jessica Burbank discuss on The Young Turks.
“The House voted 228-195 largely along party lines Thursday to pass legislation to codify the right to contraception nationwide, seeking to protect it from potential Supreme Court intervention.
The Right To Contraception Act, sponsored by Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., would establish a right in federal law for individuals to obtain and use contraceptives. It would also affirm a right for health care providers to provide contraceptives and allow the Justice Department and entities harmed by contraception restrictions to seek enforcement of the right in court.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said the United States is facing “a perilous time, where an extremist Supreme Court and the GOP are rolling back our rights.””
EXCLUSIVE
Scottie's Playtime 