U.S. lawmakers are divided on President Joe Biden’s executive order imposing new limits on asylum seekers at U.S. borders. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the debate over border security remains a tough issue ahead of general elections in November.
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Trenton, New Jersey — Representative Andy Kim won the Democratic Senate primary in the U.S. state of New Jersey on Tuesday, putting him in a strong position for the general election in the blue-leaning state. The win comes a day after Democratic Senator Bob Menendez filed to run as an independent amid his federal corruption trial. 

Kim, a three-term congressman who launched his campaign after charges against Menendez were announced last year, rose to the top in the state’s dominant political party over a relatively short period. A former Obama national security official, he defeated an incumbent Republican in a 2018 House race and won a court ruling that toppled a unique-to-New Jersey system widely viewed as giving political bosses influence over who wins primaries. 

“Our win today is a stunning victory for a people-powered movement that mobilized against corruption and stood up to the machine politics of New Jersey,” Kim said in a statement. 

Kim’s victory comes after a bruising start to the primary, when a battle between him and New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy began to take shape. Murphy, a first-time candidate and the spouse of Governor Phil Murphy, bowed out of the contest, saying she did not want to engage in a negative campaign against a fellow Democrat. On Tuesday, Kim defeated labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina and longtime grassroots organizer Lawrence Hamm, who remained on the ballot. 

Menendez, a three-term incumbent senator, declined this year to seek re-election as a Democrat but filed Monday in Trenton to run as an independent. He has said he hopes to be cleared of the charges this summer. 

Democrats’ tight hold on control of the Senate means they can hardly afford a competitive race in a state widely viewed as safe for the party. It’s unclear how the trial of Menendez will end and how his candidacy could affect the race. Republicans are eager to exploit his run as a wedge to divide the Democratic vote. 
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A report released Tuesday says hate and extremism in the United States rose in 2023, with record numbers of white nationalists and anti-LGBTQ groups trying to undermine the country’s inclusive democracy. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias breaks down the researchers’ findings and the implications for the November presidential election.
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Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed felony forgery charges Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020.

The charges were filed against attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, 62, and Jim Troupis, 70, and former Trump aide Mike Roman, 51, who allegedly delivered Wisconsin’s fake elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer in order to get them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.

All three are due in Dane County Circuit Court on Sept. 19, according to court records. They each face one felony count punishable by up to six years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

Troupis and Chesebro did not return voicemail messages left Tuesday. Roman did not have an attorney listed in court records.

Kaul, a Democrat, has faced pressure to bring action against the 10 fake electors, who have yet to be charged with any criminal wrongdoing. He has previously suggested that he was relying on federal investigators while also not ruling out a state probe.

Kaul didn’t rule out filing more charges, saying that the investigation is ongoing.

“Our approach has been focusing on following the facts where they lead,” he said at a news conference.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers offered a one-word response to news of the charges being filed: “Good.”

Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.

The fake elector efforts are central to an August federal indictment filed against Trump alleging he tried to overturn results of the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors, investigating his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, have also said the scheme originated in Wisconsin. Trump also faces charges in Georgia and has denied wrongdoing.

Michigan and Nevada have also criminally charged fake electors.

Chesebro and Roman were among the 18 people indicted along with Trump in August in a sprawling racketeering indictment in Georgia. They’re accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the 2020 election in that state.

Chesebro in October pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents after reaching a deal with Georgia prosecutors. Roman has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges related to a plan to have Republican electors meet and cast Electoral College votes for Trump even though Biden had won Georgia.

The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis, who was Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin, all settled a civil lawsuit that was brought against them last year.

Documents released as part of those settlements showed that the strategy in Wisconsin replicated moves in six other swing states.

The complaint goes into detail largely citing those documents, interviews and testimony given to Congress about how the fake elector scheme was hatched.

The complaint details how Chesebro emailed a memo on Nov. 18, 2020, to Troupis and others arguing that electors representing Trump should meet on Dec. 14, 2020, to preserve the Trump-Pence electoral slate in case a court or Legislature would determine them to be the winners.

Chesebro argued in a subsequent memo that the Trump electors could be counted by Congress if court challenges to his loss were still pending. Troupis sent both memos to the Trump White House, according to the complaint.

On Dec. 9, 2020, Chesebro emailed Troupis a memo with instructions for the Dec. 14, 2020, elector meetings. Two days later, Chesebro emailed Trump aide Roman details of the plan, the complaint said.

During or around the time of the Dec. 14, 2020, meeting, Chesebro sent a message to Troupis and Roman that said, “WI meeting of the ‘real’ electors is a go!!!,” the complaint said. Troupis responded with a “thumbs up” emoji, the complaint said.

The complaint also details how the fake elector slate was delivered to Chesebro from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, by Alesha Guenther, a law student working part-time at the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Roman told Guenther to deliver the paperwork only to Chesebro.

“5 mins until I make the drop,” Guenther texted at one point, according to the complaint. “I feel like a drug dealer.”

Once Chesebro was given the documents, he emailed Roman to let him know he had them.

Roman then arranged for a congressional staff member to meet Chesebro and take the document. Chesebro sent Roman a message confirming that it had been done, the complaint said.

Trump lost Wisconsin to Biden, a Democrat, by fewer than 21,000 votes. Trump carried Wisconsin by a similar margin in 2016.

Government and outside investigations have uniformly found there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have swung the 2020 election. But Trump has continued to spread falsehoods about the election, particularly in Wisconsin.
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Former President Donald Trump weighed in Sunday on the possibility of being sentenced to jail next month after his conviction for falsifying business records. The ‘guilty’ verdict is already being used by both the Trump and Biden campaigns to fire up their respective supporters. But swaying undecided voters will be trickier, analysts say. Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details.
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Washington — The conviction of former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment ahead of the 2016 election quickly became one of the hottest topics on Chinese social media.

Trump’s conviction became the most searched topic on Chinese social media platform Weibo and search engine Baidu on Friday morning in China. On short-video platform Douyin, TikTok’s China-based sister application, it also landed among the five most searched topics.

While views varied, many Chinese netizens posted they hope the verdict by a New York jury, which found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts, will cause unrest in the U.S. between the former president’s supporters and opponents.

Although as president, Trump took a series of punitive measures against China in areas such as technology and trade, some Chinese netizens felt that his conviction was unfair and repeated unfounded claims by his supporters that the verdict was political persecution from U.S. President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

“The Democrats’ tactics are really low,” one Weibo user under the name Little Rabbit and Evil Cake commented on the news.

Other netizens stood by the guilty verdict, declaring Trump’s conviction his own doing.

“If you do too much evil, you will be killed by yourself,” one user under the name Gray Wolf with White Fur wrote on Weibo.

But many Chinese netizens were less interested in the verdict than the unrest they hoped it would cause in the U.S.

“Trump supporters quickly mobilize and occupy Congress,” said one Weibo user in a call for a repeat of the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters trying to stop the 2020 election from being certified.

Those who stormed the Capitol were repeating Trump’s claim, without evidence, that Biden cheated in the election.

A Chinese nationalist commentator named Lu Kewen insulted Trump’s supporters in a post that hoped they resort to violence.

“Put Trump in jail and wait for the fuming rednecks to draw their guns,” he wrote.

His was not the only call for violence in the U.S. that as of Friday morning had not been removed from Chinese social media, despite the ability of Beijing’s Great Firewall internet censors to quickly delete posts by China’s own critics and domestic calls for unrest.

“Fast forward to the new Civil War. I want to see rivers of blood!” another user under the name Wearing Red Clothes wrote.

But there were also more analytical comments from Chinese netizens.

Chinese economist Hong Hao posted on his Weibo that Trump’s trial is not conducive to the stability of American society.

“The biggest issue in the United States right now is not allowing a criminal to run for president. Rather, politicizing the judicial process in these Trump cases has shaken the foundation of the rule of law in the United States,” he said.

During the 2016 election, Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006. Such payments are not illegal and are called hush money.

Trump was found guilty of falsifying company business records to conceal the reimbursement paid to Cohen. Trump denies the encounter with Daniels or that anything illegal occurred.

Trump on Thursday railed against the jury’s verdict and said, without presenting any evidence, that the trial was rigged.

“We have a judge who’s highly conflicted. He happens to be corrupt. It’s the worst confliction that anybody’s seen. Nobody has ever seen anything like it,” he said.

A spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office responded, saying only, “We respect the rule of law.”

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Despite the conviction, Trump is expected to be the Republican presidential nominee for the election on November 5.

Trump on Friday said he would appeal the conviction and repeated unfounded claims that the trial was rigged.

Biden on Friday said the verdict showed “the American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed” and said it is “reckless, is dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this (trial) was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”

When asked at a regular Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing Friday if Trump’s conviction would prevent him from visiting China, if reelected in November, or present any other difficulties for China-American relations, spokesperson Mao Ning declined to comment, calling it a U.S. domestic affair.
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US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying financial records to hide a payment to an adult film star to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Tina Trinh reports from New York.
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If you ask the U.S. presidential candidates who’s the most religious, chances are both would say, “I am.” VOA’s senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti looks at the attitudes and practices of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump toward matters of faith.
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Washington — Every four summers in America comes the spectacle of nominating conventions for the two major political parties. This July, Republicans in Milwaukee are set to again place former President Donald Trump at the top of their ticket. The following month in Chicago, Democrats are to do the formalities for their incumbent, President Joe Biden. Less attention is being paid to another gathering that will nominate its presidential candidate Saturday night.

Compared to the behemoth conventions, the Libertarian’s nominating event is a rather low-key affair. Devoid of pageantry, its casually dressed delegates are nonetheless full of passion. And it is taking on new significance this year because it will place a presidential candidate on the ballots of most states.

With polls showing a very tight race between Biden and Trump — and independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. beginning to poll above 10% in some swing states — a small number of votes for the Libertarian candidate could determine whether it is Biden or Trump who gets a second term.

None of the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidates are household names. They include New Orleans surgeon Charles Ballay; adult entertainment and tech entrepreneur Lars Mapstead; Georgia political activist Chase Oliver; and economist Mike ter Maat. It will be up to the approximately 1,000 delegates to decide who will appear on their national ballot.

“The Libertarian Party — it’s really kind of a big-tent party,” said Nathan Polsky, chairman of the Libertarian Party in Collin County, Texas.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got people that are on the right. You’ve got people that are on the left. But the one thing we all agree on is that the state has too much control and we want to roll back the level of power that the state has. Give it back to the people,” said Polsky, a cowboy hat atop his head as he surveyed the scene inside the Washington Hilton Hotel, site of this year’s Libertarian convention.

An unusual invitation

The party takes its name from the classic liberalism movement that profoundly changed the face of nations from the start of the 18th century, waging political battles in Europe and elsewhere against monarchs, slavery and religious persecution in the pursuit of individual freedom.

The present Libertarian Party in America, however, is facing turmoil inside its big tent.  That ascendant faction, known as the Mises Caucus, generally supports as its presidential candidate a former Marxist scholar named Michael Rectenwald, who professes to a recent rightward shift that embraces radically free-market capitalism.

The Libertarians’ obscure presidential candidates and arcane philosophical infighting is now overshadowed by its unprecedented invitation to the presumptive nominee of another party to address them on Saturday night.

Donald Trump accepted the unusual offer.

“Trump recognizes that this election will be close and that just a few percentage points of the vote could make a real difference in some swing states,” said Seth Masket, a University of Denver political science professor who runs the school’s Center on American Politics.

“It is difficult to see Trump’s agenda as consistent with libertarian ideals of a smaller, less-invasive federal government. However, leaders of the Libertarian Party may find some other issues on which they are aligned,” Masket told VOA.

Some wary Libertarians view Trump wading into their political territory as merely another ploy to gain attention. They caution that the former president, used to addressing enthusiastic supporters at his MAGA rallies, may be surprised to find himself the target of some boos from the politically eclectic crowd.

“It’s a chance for him to speak and get his word out, and he can speak to a bunch of other people who probably would not normally listen to what he has to say,” said construction worker James St. John, a Libertarian delegate from Virginia.  “That’s the main reason he’s doing it.”

Intra-party disagreements

The party is “hardly libertarian anymore,” according to Peter Goettler, president and chief executive of the Cato Institute, the most prominent libertarian think tank in the United States.

“Trump’s appearance this week says as much about the Libertarian Party as it does about him,” writes Goettler in a Washington Post opinion piece. “The party has had its ups and downs and some embarrassing moments throughout its history. But its problems more often arose from amateurism and fractiousness rather than malice, the inevitable effect of being a small third party in a two-party system.”

Addressing the National Rifle Association last week, Trump was pragmatic about courting Libertarians.

“Largely, they have so much of what we have,” Trump told the NRA. “You know, they are also people of common sense, generally speaking. They have a couple of things that are a little different. But we have to join with them, because they get their 3% every year no matter who’s running. And we have to get that 3% because we can’t take a chance on Joe Biden winning.”

Since the Libertarians’ first presidential ticket in 1972, their best performance was in 2016 when former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson received 3.28% of the popular vote.

It is unlikely Trump can capture more than a sliver of that 3%, predicted Vermont Libertarian delegate Anne Lepeltier.

“Do I think he’s going to get the Libertarian vote? No. May some Libertarians vote for him? Surely, yes. Will I be one of them? Also, no,” she told VOA at the party’s convention.

Lepeltier said she is undecided about whether to attend Trump’s speech.

President Biden was also invited to address the Libertarian convention, but he declined the offer. His reelection campaign did not respond to repeated requests from VOA to comment on the Republican nominee’s outreach to the third party, or why Biden turned down equal time at the convention to that of Trump and Kennedy, who addressed the gathering Friday afternoon.
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The two major U.S. political parties — the Democrats and the Republicans — will hold their presidential nominating conventions this summer amid spectacle and media saturation. Less attention is being paid to another gathering, one that will nominate its candidate Saturday. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman is in Washington with the Libertarian Party’s story.
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US President Joe Biden lavished Kenyan President William Ruto with more than just pomp and polish on his first state visit: On Thursday, Biden announced he would make the East African nation a major non-NATO ally – the first sub-Saharan nation to receive that status. The move signals the shifting of US security cooperation to East Africa right as US troops prepare to depart Niger. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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Pennsylvania is one of a handful of US states that could determine the outcome of November’s presidential election. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns looks at what Joe Biden and Donald Trump are doing to win there.
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WASHINGTON — The headquarters of the Republican National Committee in Washington was briefly evacuated Wednesday morning after a suspicious package containing two vials of blood was delivered to the building, the police said. 

The RNC, the parent organization of the Republican Party, is playing a major role in the campaign of former President Donald Trump, who will face Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in the November 5 presidential election.  

The authorities initially closed off one downtown block and directed staff and other personnel to avoid the area. By midmorning, employees were reentering the building and police were leaving the scene, according to a Reuters witness.  

“The source of the package and its contents will be further investigated,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. 

The RNC did not respond to a request for comment. 
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The United States has two majority political parties: Democratic and Republican. Here is a look at the history of the Democratic Party.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers Tuesday the International Criminal Court’s decision to seek an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endangers hopes for a cease-fire in Gaza. Katherine Gypson reports. Saqib Ui Islam contributed.
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Women voters are more than half of the U.S. electorate. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns reports on what presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are doing to win women’s votes.
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WASHINGTON — Hundreds of protesters rallied within sight of the U.S. Capitol, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and voicing criticism of the Israeli and American governments as they marked a painful present — the war in Gaza — and past — the exodus of about 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from what is now Israel when the state was created in 1948. 

About 400 demonstrators braved steady rains to rally on the National Mall on the 76th anniversary of what is called the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe. In January, thousands of pro-Palestinian activists had gathered in the nation’s capital in one of the larger protests in recent memory. 

There were calls in support of Palestinian rights and an immediate end to Israeli military operations in Gaza. “No peace on stolen land” and “End the killings, stop the crime/Israel out of Palestine,” echoed through the crowd. 

Protesters also focused their anger on President Joe Biden, whom they accuse of feigning concern over the death toll in Gaza. 

“Biden Biden, you will see/genocide’s your legacy,” they said. The Democratic president was in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday. 

Reem Lababdi, a George Washington University sophomore who said she was pepper-sprayed by police last week when they broke up an on-campus protest encampment, acknowledged that the rain seemed to hold down the numbers. 

“I’m proud of every single person who turned out in this weather to speak their minds and send their message,” she said. 

This year’s commemoration was fueled by anger over the ongoing siege of Gaza. The latest Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking an additional 250 hostage. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives, and Israel’s military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

Speaker Osama Abuirshad, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, gestured at the Capitol building dome behind him. 

“This Congress does not speak for us. This Congress does not represent the will of the people,” he said. “We’re paying for the bombs. We’re paying for the F-16s and F-35s. And then we do the poor Palestinians a favor and send some food.” 

Speakers also expressed anger over the violent crackdown on multiple pro-Palestinian protest camps at universities across the country. In recent weeks, long-term encampments have been broken up by police at more than 60 schools; just under 3,000 protesters have been arrested. 

The demonstrators marched for several blocks on Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues, with police cars closing the streets ahead of them. One lone counter-protester, waving an Israeli flag, attempted to march near the front of the procession. At one point, one of the demonstrators snatched his flag and ran away. 

With tensions rising, members of the protesters’ “safety team” formed a tight phalanx around the man, both to impede his progress and protect him from the crowd. The standoff was broken up when a police officer intervened, led the man away and told him to go home. 
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