Team Trump Gets Major Win With Georgia Elections Board Case

Democrats won’t be able to prevent recently altered election rules designed to benefit Donald Trump, per a Wednesday ruling dismissing an effort by private citizens to force Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to open an investigation into the committee that crafted the regulations.

“It would seem to me, that for formal charges, there’s some investigation comes in before that,” Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There needs to be some investigation ... then trigger the governor to do something in that respect, not just a letter from the citizens.”

Three Democrats, including state Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes, sued Kemp after he refused to act on their concerns regarding the Georgia State Election Board, which in August voted to make it easier for county election officials to delay or refuse certification of election results. Democrats argued that letters they had obtained constituted “formal charges” worthy of spurring an investigation.

“They’re going rogue, and there’s no accountability,” Islam Parkes told the Journal-Constitution. “They need to be held accountable because we need to have fair elections.”

Internal emails obtained by Rolling Stone and American Doom after the 3–2 election board vote along MAGA lines revealed that the board’s actions were fueled by a “wishlist” of documents from conservative county election officials.

“As an American and native Georgian, I’m outraged Governor Brian Kemp is allowing law-violating, last minute election rule changes,” wrote one of the co-plaintiffs, former Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections Chair Cathy Woolard, in an op-ed for Newsweek on Monday, decrying Kemp’s inaction as “foul play.”

Kemp’s attorneys argued that complaints by private citizens could not compel the governor to open an ethics investigation.

“That is an extraordinary position to take,” Deputy Attorney General Logan Winkles said. “The court can imagine the chaos that would cause.”

The plaintiffs told the Journal-Constitution that they intend to appeal the decision.

The new election certification rules set the stage for bedlam come November, especially considering that at least 70 election officials across 16 counties in key swing states, including Georgia, have been identified as pro-Trump election deniers.

Trump praised the MAGA members of Georgia’s board days before the August vote, describing Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares, and Janelle King as “pit bulls fighting for victory.”

According to the State Election Board’s website, the body is “entrusted with a variety of responsibilities and authority to protect all Georgians’ right to cast a ballot.”

Georgia has had the largest number of certification refusals since 2020 of anywhere in the country. The five-person board has been accused of other ethics violations, including one instance in which its Trump-friendly majority failed to give proper notice to their Democratic colleagues about a meeting that they used to advance changes to state election rules.

House Republicans are threatening to punish colleges and universities that allow pro-Palestine protests.

The Guardian reported Wednesday that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise met with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, on October 1 and declared he plans to take action against higher education institutions by revoking their accreditation if Donald Trump wins in November, jeopardizing their federal funding.

“Your accreditation is on the line,” Scalise said. “You’re not playing games any more, or else you’re not a school any more.”

The publication obtained video of the meeting, which was also attended by Republican Representative Pat Fallon from Texas. It began as a discussion about antisemitism spreading in the U.S. after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 last year. But the topic quickly changed to squashing criticism of Israel’s war, which has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 16,000 children.

Fallon applauded AIPAC’s targeting of progressive critics of Israel, praising the organization for spending $23 million to intervene in congressional primaries.

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for firing Jamaal Bowman, and even more so, Miss Cori Bush. Great work,” Fallon said.

Scalise concurred and invoked an antisemitic trope, commending the organization for having “tentacles throughout the Republican and Democrat circles in 435 districts. You can see how people are voting—just put the pressure on those who are voting the wrong way.”

Scalise promised that a second Trump administration would use federal funding to target schools that don’t crush pro-Palestinian protests.

“We’re looking at federal money, the federal grants that go through the science committee, student loans. You have a lot of jurisdiction as president, with all of these different agencies that are involving billions of dollars, some cases a billion alone going to one school,” said Scalise. He singled out Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University as examples.

Scalise then criticized Jewish students who participate in the protests, saying they “just feel guilty that they’re alive. I don’t know how you’re brought up to where you feel, ‘I’m a Jewish student, and I’m on the side with terrorists who want to kill me.’”

Scalise, along with other politicians in both the GOP and the Democratic Party, are going against constitutional principles of free speech to demonize protesters who are opposed to Israel’s widespread killing and destruction of Gaza the past year. They see their job as supporting Israel’s actions with no limits, regardless of the humanitarian toll and the prospects of the U.S. being drawn into a wide and deadly war.

Vice President Kamala Harris has raised a record-breaking $1 billion in cash in less than 80 days on the campaign trail, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke with The New York Times.

That total includes fundraising from both her campaign and party committees such as the Democratic National Committee, and does not include money donated to aligned super PACs.

The record $1 billion figure is far more than what Trump has raised in a whole year of campaigning. Trump has raised around $853 million in 2024 according to public statements tabulated by the Times.

Harris also outpaced Trump threefold in cash over the summer, raising $361 million in August to his $130 million. Three-quarters of the more than one million new donors to Harris in August did not contribute in the previous presidential election, according to her campaign.

Failed businessman Trump has reason to be scared. No candidate has ever raised more than $1 billion in less than three months.

In the meantime, as the donations to Harris keep coming in, Trump will keep shilling watches, Bibles, or NFTs, in a desperate attempt to try to keep pace.

President Biden on Wednesday called out the “onslaught of lies” from the right regarding relief efforts over Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, particularly from Donald Trump and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“Assertions have been made that property was being confiscated. That’s simply not true. They’re saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more. That’s simply not true. They’re saying the money needed for this crisis is being diverted to migrants. What a ridiculous thing to say; it’s not true,” an outraged Biden said in a briefing from the White House.

Biden also addressed Greene’s wild claim that the federal government controls the weather and is sending hurricanes to Republican areas, calling it “beyond ridiculous,” and urging Republicans to put politics aside for relief efforts.

“It’s got to stop. In moments like this, there are no red or blue states. There’s one United States of America, where neighbors are helping neighbors,” Biden said. “Volunteers and first responders are risking everything, including their own lives, to help their fellow Americans.”

Later in the briefing, Biden thanked the Republican governors who have addressed disinformation about hurricane relief efforts, and further expressed his incredulity over the wild conspiracies.

“This stuff is off the wall. It’s like out of a comic book,” Biden said.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Milton is predicted to cause immense damage when it makes landfall in Florida, shaking the composure of even one of the state’s most experienced meteorologists. While some Republican politicians are dismissing the conspiracies and trying to do their jobs, others are demanding federal aid that they voted against or are missing in action. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis doesn’t even see the point in speaking to Kamala Harris, even as the vice president pledges to protect hurricane victims from illegal fraud and price gouging.

As a whole, Republicans still are refusing to acknowledge the role of climate change in the increased frequency and severity of these storms, and their attempt to politicize them hurts their constituents. Perhaps these hurricanes need to be politicized in a different way to make sure that people are actually helped instead of being used by their leaders.

As Election Day looms, Donald Trump is finalizing his speaking schedule for the next several weeks. One surprising stop, according to sources familiar with the Republican candidate’s schedule, is a hometown visit to New York City.

The New York Post first reported that Trump will hold a rally at Madison Square Garden later this month. New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who represents the district, confirmed that the event will be held October 27 at 3 p.m.

In a solidly blue New York City, one might ask why Trump is bothering to campaign so close to the election in the city at all.

Online critics were quick to point out that the event bears a striking resemblance to a Nazi rally that took place in Madison Square Garden in 1939 during the reign of Adolf Hitler. At the time, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was criticized for allowing the event to take place, but it proceeded anyway. Many also questioned the motivations of a Trump rally in a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican candidate for president since Ronald Reagan.

Hoylman-Sigal called the rally a “disastrous decision” by the venue “that will endanger the public safety of New Yorkers and has the potential to incite widespread violence.” Like many, he also called upon Madison Square Garden to cancel the event.