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Pressure campaign boosting Rick Scott could fall flat with Senate GOP colleagues, strategists say

Pressure campaign boosting Rick Scott could fall flat with Senate GOP colleagues, strategists say

As Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., enjoys an influx of public support from Trump-allies ahead of the Senate Republican leader race on Wednesday, some strategists are warning that the external pressure might not translate to the secret ballot and could even hurt his effort.  “They don’t matter one way or another,” said Republican strategist Doug Heye, sounding off on the public endorsements Scott has received from figures such as billionaire X owner Elon Musk, former presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Sens. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., among others. “The only endorsement that matters, especially in such an inside game, would be Trump’s,” he added. TRUMP ALLIES BACK RICK SCOTT IN GOP SENATE LEADER RACE AS THEY LOOK TO INFLUENCE SECRET BALLOT Trump notably has not made an endorsement, and it is unclear if he will explicitly back a candidate in the leader race, which will be conducted via secret ballot on Nov. 13 at 9:30 a.m.  Scott is competing against Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Sens. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., expressed their support for Thune early on. Cornyn received his only public endorsement last week from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. SCHUMER WON’T ALLOW DAVE MCCORMICK AT SENATE ORIENTATION, CITING OUTSTANDING PA BALLOTS “Senate Republicans aren’t usually influenced by those outside the Senate when it comes to leadership elections,” explained Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, former top spokesman to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and former chief of staff of the Senate Republican Conference. “In fact, too much pressure would likely have the opposite effect and cause a candidate to lose votes.” SENATE LEADER CONTENDER JOHN THUNE RESPONDS TO NEW TRUMP LITMUS TEST AHEAD OF ELECTION Since the vote is conducted by secret ballot, there is no way to know how an individual senator voted unless they reveal it. And even then, reporters, colleagues, and the public can only take them at their word.  Thune had previously described the nature of the secret ballot by referring to an old quote by former Sen. Lamar Alexander after he lost the election for Republican whip by one vote to Lott. In 2006, following the loss, Alexander reportedly said, “I wrote 26 thank you notes for 24 votes.” A former leadership aide previously cast doubt on how much of an impact even an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump would have.  “I don’t think it has anywhere near the impact that it would in a public race,” they told Fox News Digital.  CORNYN TOUTS LIFETIME FUNDRAISING PROWESS FOR GOP IN FINAL CASE TO SUCCEED MCCONNELL The aide further described the leader race vote as “a true vote of conscience” for senators. According to the aide, these particular votes “are not super-amenable to endorsement pressure.” Another factor that could play into how senators vote is whether the leader is sustainable after Trump’s second term. Depending on whether term limits are instituted for the leader, which some have pushed for and both Scott and Cornyn have gotten behind, the GOP leader could very well outlast Trump, who can only serve his four-year term. Thune has said he is open to the idea of limiting terms for the Republican leader. 

Media liberals savage Kamala as Trump picks experienced hard-liners

Media liberals savage Kamala as Trump picks experienced hard-liners

I have now read 587 pieces on why Kamala Harris got clobbered, so I consider myself an expert. I have also watched endless cable segments in which left-leaning pundits either grappled with the fallout from the Democratic wipeout, or urged their colleagues to become part of the Resistance, with Rachel Maddow telling the “free press” to “stand and fight.” As Donald Trump moves quickly to fill top administration posts – and newspaper pieces warn of the horrors to come – the denigration of Harris, and Joe Biden, has reached fever pitch. And yet, many of the media liberals who praised the Kamala operation as “flawless” and “incredible” now basically say it was a no-good, horrible, very bad campaign. That makes clear they knew this all along, but wouldn’t say so, because they were protecting the vice president as a way of trying to keep Trump out of the White House. This is yet another blow to the media’s plummeting credibility. BIDEN, HARRIS TEAMS IN LEAK WAR AFTER KAMALA HARRIS’ 2024 ELECTION LOSS Here are some of the media post-mortems: Andrew Sullivan: “How could an entire left-liberal worldview be more comprehensibly dismantled by reality? And yet, the primary response among my own liberal friends was rage at the electorate. They texted me to insist that Harris lost because of white people — white women, in particular.”  Maureen Dowd: “Some Democrats are finally waking up and realizing that woke is broke… “Kamala, a Democratic lawmaker told me, made the ‘colossal mistake’ of running a billion-dollar campaign with celebrities like Beyoncé when many of the struggling working-class voters she wanted couldn’t even afford a ticket to a Beyoncé concert, much less a down payment on a home.” Nellie Bowles, the Free Press, said Harris “made me furious, because she’s a good and fine person who ran a truly terrible campaign. It was a campaign that exemplified all of the delusions of the modern Democrats: that you never need to say what you stand for (because people should just assume you know what’s best for them), that you should never answer hard questions or appear with questionable figures, and that the only issue any American woman should care about is abortion… “The real villain of this story is Zombie Biden and his corrupt family, who the media treated like heroes the whole way through.” David Brooks: “There will be some on the left who will say Trump won because of the inherent racism, sexism and authoritarianism of the American people. Apparently, those people love losing and want to do it again and again and again… “Can the party of the universities, the affluent suburbs and the hipster urban cores do this [disrupt the Republicans]? Well, Donald Trump hijacked a corporate party, which hardly seemed like a vehicle for proletarian revolt, and did exactly that. Those of us who condescend to Trump should feel humbled — he did something none of us could do.” Politico: “How can Harris’s defenders grumble about being dragged down by Biden when she could not find one substantive policy issue on which to break from the unpopular incumbent? She waited three months, blurted out on ‘The View’ that she couldn’t think of any difference with Biden.”  National Review: “She was a lousy candidate with an even lousier message, if you can call it that. The only thing she had to do was sell herself, and she couldn’t manage even this fundamental task.” COLUMNIST CALLS OUT KAMALA HARRIS FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO ANSWER CRITICAL QUESTION ON ‘THE VIEW’ Well, you get the idea. In a 107-day campaign, Harris couldn’t convince enough Americans that she was authentic, that she could be commander-in-chief, or that she had abandoned the far-left policies (such as legalizing border crossings and backing inmate trans surgeries) of her last campaign. She foolishly hid from the press for a month, fostering the impression that she couldn’t go off script. Now just about everyone – except those blaming her loss on racism and sexism – is saying what I’ve been saying for three months. Harris never should have picked Tim Walz, who did nothing for the ticket. The trans issue hurt her and she never picked an issue, that or something else, to separate from the left wing of her party. She worried too much about hurting Joe’s feelings. The VP tried to focus on kitchen-table economics, such as with her price-gouging plan. But despite low inflation and unemployment right now, many Americans still felt they were paying higher grocery prices and liked Trump’s economic record better than Biden’s. It may well be there’s nothing Harris could have done to stop the Trump juggernaut, given his hijacking of working class and minority voters. Now the president-elect is moving quickly to tap his top appointees, having immediately named campaign manager Susie Wiles as his chief of staff – the first woman ever to hold the job. Tom Homan, who was ICE director in Trump’s first term, will be the border czar, not a big surprise. Homan will be in charge of the mass deportation program, and when asked if there was a way to avoid separating families, as happened last time, he said sure – deport them all together. Stephen Miller, who ran the hard-line immigration policy in the first term, is expected to be named deputy chief of staff – a promotion, first reported yesterday by CNN, that probably doesn’t convey the clout he’ll have as a trusted member of Trump’s inner circle. TRUMP WILL LEAVE THE WH WITH ONE OF THE HIGHEST APPROVAL RATINGS OF ANY MODERN PRESIDENT, LARA TRUMP PREDICTS I had been told days ago that Elise Stefanik, a GOP congresswoman from upstate New York, would go into the administration. And yesterday, Trump tapped her to be U.N. ambassador. She has experience in the George W. Bush White House. Then there are insiders who are the subject of speculation. Howard  Lutnick, a Wall Street CEO, is being touted by some as a possible Treasury secretary,

Dem Rep Ruben Gallego beats Kari Lake in battle for Arizona Senate seat

Dem Rep Ruben Gallego beats Kari Lake in battle for Arizona Senate seat

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has won the race for Arizona’s open Senate seat, beating out Republican Kari Lake, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, according to The Associated Press Monday night. Gallego has served in the House of Representatives since 2015, representing the 7th and 3rd congressional districts in Arizona.  ARIZONA DEMOCRATIC PARTY OFFICE SHARED WITH HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN SHOT AT FOR THIRD TIME IN LESS THAN A MONTH Lake ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor in 2022 and was defeated by Gov. Katie Hobbs, D-Ariz. Prior to her gubernatorial run, she was a news anchor for a local Arizona television station and worked in the media for 27 years.  After the 2022 loss, she challenged the results, citing fraud concerns in the state. Lake still contends that there were significant irregularities in 2020 and 2022, echoing claims that Trump and many of his supporters have made. The concerns have led to the Republican National Committee devoting significant resources to election integrity efforts.  SWING STATE GOP CHAIR SLAMS BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN FOR BEING OUT OF TOUCH ON KEY ISSUE: ‘ABANDONED THIS COUNTRY’ Lake faced off against Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Republican Senate primary, while Gallego had an advantage, running in the Democratic primary unopposed.  The Fox News Power Rankings in September rated the Arizona Senate race as “Leans Democrat.” Similarly, the Cook Political Report, a top political handicapper, also considered the race “Lean Democrat.”  TRUMP-BACKED HOUSE CANDIDATE RIPS BIDEN’S ‘JOKE’ BORDER POLICY FOR INVITING GANG VIOLENCE TO SWING STATE The Senate seat is currently held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who was elected as a Democrat. She still caucuses with Democrats in the Senate but officially registered as an independent years ago after opposing her fellow Senate Democrats on the legislative filibuster. Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., are credited with going against the Democrats to uphold the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold.  Both senators decided not to run for re-election.  NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION HAS TO ‘GET SERIOUS’ ABOUT IMMIGRATION, SAY VOTERS IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE Before she announced that she was not going to seek another term, Sinema’s potential run as a third-party candidate threatened to upend the Senate race, with strategists unsure how her supporters would break.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In polling leading up to the Senate election, Gallego frequently led Lake by single digits. He had even managed to lead his opponent in surveys that saw Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris. Experts speculated that his connection with Latino voters could have fueled split-ticket voting in the state, despite the practice becoming relatively rare.  While Lake often played up her relationship with Trump, who had polled higher than her in the state, Gallego did not often do the same with Harris during his campaign.  Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Trump expected to name Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State

Trump expected to name Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State

President-elect Trump is expected to nominate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as Secretary of State, a source familiar tells Fox News. The source noted that while Trump could still change his mind at the last minute, as of now he’s planning on offering the job to Rubio, the three-term senator whom the former president considered as his running mate this summer before naming Sen. JD Vance as the GOP vice presidential nominee. Spokespeople for the Trump transition didn’t immediately comment. The news was first reported by the New York Times earlier this evening.  HERE’S WHO TRUMP NAMED TO STEER THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, was first elected to the Senate in 2010 as part of the Tea Party wave. He is known on Capitol Hill as a foreign policy hawk who favors maintaining U.S. alliances overseas, including NATO.  But Rubio, who sits on both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, has taken similar positions to Trump on international conflicts, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war with Hamas.  HERE’S WHAT TRUMP’S INCOMING BORDER CZAR TOLD FOX NEWS In April, the 53-year-old senator voted against the $95 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine and has urged the eastern European nation to negotiate an end to its war with Russia. Rubio was a rival to Trump during the combustible 2016 Republican presidential nomination battle [with Trump deriding him as ‘Little Marco’] but over the years has become a strong Trump ally in the Senate..  Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, would become the first Latino Secretary of State in the nation’s history. The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), a major backer of Trump this year, applauded the news.  RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement that “we know that with Senator Rubio leading the State Department, America will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and confront our enemies.” “In these extraordinarily dangerous times, Senator Rubio is an outspoken defender of Israel who has always had the Jewish state’s back,” they added. GET THE FOX NEWS APP BY CLICKING HERE Less than a week after winning a second term in the White House, Trump has already begun to shape his cabinet. In the past 24 hours, Trump has selected Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations, Tom Homan as the new “border czar,” Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida to be his national security advisor, and former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York to steer the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This story is breaking. Please check back for updates. 

In Australia’s outback, youth crime stymies efforts to get tourism on track

In Australia’s outback, youth crime stymies efforts to get tourism on track

Alice Springs, Australia – For Ben Hall, the CEO of tour bus operator AAT Kings, business lately has been tough. He says visitors are not booking tours to Uluru, a huge sandstone monolith that is the most famous attraction in Australia’s vast Northern Territory, in the numbers they used to. “We’ve certainly seen the trips from Alice Springs to Uluru have been a little bit softer,” Hall, who operates a fleet of about 30 buses focusing on tours to Uluru, told Al Jazeera. “We’ve added a couple of new short break itineraries for this year into the region…but certainly it’s been tough trading.” Tour and car rental companies across Australia’s Red Centre, as the country’s vast outback region is often called, have reported a similar drop-off in business. While tourism operators attribute the decline to a number of factors, most agree that part of the cause is escalating youth crime in Alice Springs, a remote town of some 40,000 people that serves as a base for visitors to outback attractions such as Uluru. In the past two years, youth crime in the town has captured national media attention and stoked political turmoil at the both federal and state government levels, even though crimes by minors have also risen nationwide. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who leads the centre-left Labor Party, has made several visits to the town to highlight his government’s efforts to tackle the issue. In March, and again in July, the Northern Territory government implemented curfews banning minors from the town centre at night following a series of violent attacks. Uluru is a major attraction in the Northern Territory [Wing Kuang/Al Jazeera] The rise in crime has drawn particular attention to Alice Springs in the media as it came after the Northern Territory government ended a 15-year alcohol ban in remote Aboriginal communities in late 2022. In 2007, Australia’s federal government implemented a series of interventions in the Northern Territory, where about one-third of the population is Indigenous, in response to a territory government report that found evidence of widespread child sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities. The federal interventions, which some rights groups criticised as racist and discriminatory, included a blanket ban on alcohol in remote Aboriginal communities that was extended by successive territory governments. After the alcohol ban was lifted, a series of high-profile violent incidents in Alice Springs, including teenagers stealing vehicles and attacking police cars, made headlines across the country. In the year ending November 2023, violent offences by youths rose to 1,182, a 50 percent rise compared to 2019-20, according to the Northern Territory’s Department of the Attorney-General and Justice. After accounting for population change, the overall youth offender rate decreased from 2,855 to 2,819 offenders per 100,000 persons in 2022–23, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, although part of that decrease can be explained by the government’s decision in August 2023 to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12. Local police warned residents to avoid visiting the town centre, and the Northern Territory government reintroduced a ban on alcohol sales in January 2023. While the uptick in crime has prompted politicians to action, some community leaders and legal experts have criticised the territory government for implementing “draconian” policies, such as curfews, that could further stigmatise Indigenous communities. Human rights groups have also accused police of targeting Indigenous people in the territory, which has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world. Last month, the newly elected Northern Territory government lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10, prompting concern among community leaders that Indigenous teenagers will be locked up at even higher rates. North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, a not-for-profit legal service, noted that between 2018 and 2023, the number of prisoners in the territory rose 22 percent, which it claimed was a result of young Aboriginal people being targeted by law enforcement. Jared Sharp, a legal officer for the non-profit, said in a press release that while the public perceives a rise in youth crime in the Northern Territory, “youth justice court lodgements territory-wide have fallen for three years running”. The focus on youth crime and subsequent crackdown have been keenly felt by tourism operators, who typically see an uptick in tourism during the dry season between April and October. In April, tourism industry figures called for “urgent” financial support from the government after the announcement of the first curfew prompted a wave of customer cancellations. In September, Ross River Resort, a popular stop for travellers en route to Alice Springs, announced that it would close its doors to the general public from the following month. Martin Ansell, co-director of resort operator Grollo Group, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that tourism had dropped “50 to 60 per cent” from the previous year. Kirsten Holmgren, who runs tours of the East MacDonnell Ranges, said she has had a “very, very quiet” season. “This year I haven’t had more than six people on a 16-seater bus, so I do have to fill in between working for other companies,” Holmgren told Al Jazeera. Kirsten Holmgren says her customers have sharply declined [Wing Kuang/Al Jazeera] While Holmgren acknowledges the issue of youth crime in Alice Springs, she believes the media have given the issue outsized attention, discouraging visitors. “So break-ins and car thefts have definitely been on the rise. This in no way affects tourism at all. It only affects the locals,” Holmgren said. Danial Rochford, CEO of Tourism Central Australia, said crime is not the only reason tourism has been suffering, pointing to cost-of-living pressures as well as reduced flights to Alice Springs. Tourism in the region “has come under enormous challenge”, Rochford told Al Jazeera. While tour companies have reported a drop-off in visitors passing through or basing themselves in Alice Springs and its surrounds, operators are more sanguine about the number of visitors to Uluru itself. A spokesperson for Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, an Indigenous-owned business that runs the local Ayers Rock Resort, said