TV News LIES

Michigan’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate is a three-way dead heat, according to a new poll conducted for Drop Site News and Zeteo.

The poll from Data for Progress found that 22% of likely Democratic primary voters support Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed by Bernie Sanders and a vocal critic of Israel; 23% support Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel Democrat who is being backed by party leaders in Washington, D.C.; and 22% support Mallory McMorrow, the J Street-endorsed candidate positioning herself in between Stevens and El-Sayed.

Notably, a third of voters were undecided—and a majority (64%) said they are less likely to support a Senate candidate who receives donations from AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups, while 10% said they are more likely.

Data for Progress polled 515 likely Democratic primary voters in Michigan, from April 2-8. The poll tested what would happen in a two-way race, and found McMorrow would benefit more from El-Sayed dropping out than vice versa: His voters are more likely to consider McMorrow their second choice, whereas McMorrow’s are more likely to call Stevens their second choice, suggesting that McMorrow and El-Sayed are not simply splitting the more progressive vote.

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US Vice President JD Vance's address at an event on Tuesday drew widespread ridicule after images of sparsely filled seating circulated, with critics saying voters were increasingly unwilling to support politicians they see as backers of Israel’s wars on Iran and Palestine. 

Vance was also heckled at the event by what should have been a supportive and friendly crowd.

Posts shared across multiple platforms showed wide sections of empty seats at a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event inside the Akins Ford Arena in Athens, Georgia, fuelling commentary that attendance was far lower than expected.

Some social media users wrote that Americans were "done listening to Zionists", while others framed the turnout as a sign of growing public fatigue with US military adventurism in the Middle East.

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Protesters decrying delays to funding in the battle against HIV/Aids charged into a congressional hearing where the Trump administration’s budget czar, Russell Vought, was testifying in Washington on Wednesday.

The demonstrators disrupted the proceedings on Capitol Hill and twice brought the hearing to a halt.

The Trump administration has slashed global aid, including the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), which was created by George W Bush when he was president, and enjoys bipartisan support in Congress. Lawmakers funded Pepfar with $4.6bn this year. But activists say the majority of payments are still not going out to organizations in the field.

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John Eastman, a lawyer who spearheaded efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in President Trump’s favor, has been formally disbarred in California.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review his appeal of a lower court’s recommendation to strip him of his law license, instead ordering his disbarment.https://thehill.com/homenews/5833287-john-eastman-disbarred-california/

“The court orders that John Charles Eastman…is disbarred from the practice of law in California and that Respondent’s name is stricken from the roll of attorneys,” reads a terse order on the docket of Eastman’s case.

The state’s highest court also ordered Eastman to pay a $5,000 sanction to the State Bar of California Client Security Fund.

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A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.

Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors

Every state that has so far enacted the compact has Democratic electoral majorities, including California, New York and Illinois. But legislation has been introduced in enough states to reach the 270-elector threshold, including swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The legislation relies on two provisions of the US constitution, which would face intense legal scrutiny if and when the compact comes into force. Article II, section 1 of the constitution authorizes each state to appoint electors “in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct”. The constitution does not require states to even have a vote for president, never mind delegating those electors as a state’s voters choose.

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When the Democratic party’s governing body adjourned its meeting on Saturday in New Orleans, supporters of Palestine and an end of the genocide in Gaza had few reasons to celebrate. The Democratic tinmajority of the party’s voters with distinctly negative views of Israel.

Last summer, a Quinnipiac Poll found that 77% of Democrats agreed that “Israel is committing genocide”. Last month, an NBC poll found that 67% of Democrats felt more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis, compared with 17% who felt more sympathetic to Israelis.

But the DNC continues to operate as if fully sealed off from the party’s voters on such matters. When the national meeting got under way on Thursday, the party’s resolutions committee proceeded to quickly discard a pair of resolutions critical of Israel.

One urged “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory” as well as “pausing or conditioning US weapons transfers to any military units credibly implicated in violations of international humanitarian law”. Another included opposition to “military actions that endanger civilians or exacerbate repression” in Iran.

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