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New Jersey Democrat targets Sen. Menendez’s access to classified information — and Trump’s
WASHINGTON — Now charged with 18 federal counts, embattled Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., faces a mounting pressure campaign from his colleagues in Congress.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., will announce legislation Friday that would prohibit people charged with certain crimes from receiving classified information, implicitly targeting Menendez, who was charged with bribery, conspiring with foreign governments and other counts.
If approved by Congress, the bill — titled the Guarding the United States Against Reckless Disclosures Act, or GUARD Act for short — would apply to any federal official or candidate charged with compromising U.S. national security, acting as a foreign agent, obstructing an official proceeding or unlawfully retaining classified national defense information, according to a copy first shared with NBC News.
The bill could also apply to former President Donald Trump. In addition to members of Congress, Sherrill’s legislation would cover the president, the vice president, candidates for federal office who receive classified information, members of the military and employees of the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Postal Service.
Trump, who has been charged with mishandling classified information and with obstructing Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election results, will soon begin to receive intelligence briefings, as is customary for presidential nominees to ensure a smooth transition of power. It’s one of the reasons Sherrill is introducing the legislation now.
“We have a former president who has shown a long history of disclosing secrets to adversaries, trying to hide and destroy information, not being clear on what he’s held and is now under indictment for these infractions,” Sherrill said in an interview Wednesday. “And yet our intelligence community is supposed to start briefing him?
“This legislation seeks to remedy that and make sure that people who are under indictment cannot have access to state secrets,” she added.
Trump and Menendez have pleaded not guilty, and neither has yet gone to trial. But Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor and Navy pilot, believes neither man should have access to classified information in the meantime.
Sherrill called on Menendez to resign hours after he was initially indicted in September and accused of taking lavish gifts in exchange for using his influence as the chair of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee at the time.
Menendez stepped down as chair in the fall but has rejected calls to resign from Congress from more than half of his Democratic Senate colleagues and the entire New Jersey House delegation, except for his son, Democratic Rep. Robert Menendez Jr.
“It has long been a concern of mine about keeping access to classified information from people who seem willing to give away state secrets or undermine our national security,” Sherrill said. “So of course when Menendez was charged with acting as a foreign agent — how someone like that could have access to classified information when he has already misused it in such a powerful position is mind-boggling to me.”
Her bill would allow majority votes in the House and the Senate to override it and allow access to sensitive information case by case.
Menendez’s most vocal critic, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., introduced his own resolution to strip him of his committee assignments and ban him from receiving classified information after he continued to attend briefings on sensitive national security matters. But that legislation hasn’t gone anywhere. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described Menendez’s legal woes as “serious allegations” but has declined to call on him to step down.
Sherrill said she didn’t discuss her effort with Fetterman.
Despite growing criticism and increased scrutiny, Menendez announced this month that he would run for re-election as an independent if he is exonerated. He is scheduled to go on trial in May, and the independent filing deadline is June 4.
“At a time like this, when we have a former president like Trump trying to call into question a lot of the institutions of our government, a lot of our values, it’s very important that we have leaders in office that people can have faith in,” Sherrill said.
“I don’t think you can argue that anyone can have faith in Menendez, who has used his office to enrich himself, who has put his interests, in a very Trump-like way, quite frankly, ahead of the interests of the nation,” she said.
Alabama Democrat Marilyn Lands flips state legislature seat
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Democrat who campaigned on reproductive rights wins special election for Alabama state House seat
Washington — Democrat Marilyn Lands won a special election for an Alabama state House seat late Tuesday, flipping a Republican-held seat in the deep-red state in the aftermath of a court ruling in the state that threw access to fertility treatments into question.
Lands, a mental health counselor, made reproductive rights central to her campaign. She’s spoken openly about her own abortion when her pregnancy was nonviable. And she ran advertisements on reproductive health care, like contraception and in vitro fertilization, being threatened in the state, after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that equated frozen embryos to children and led major IVF providers in the state to pause fertility treatments.
“Today, Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation,” Lands said in a statement after her victory on Tuesday. “Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception.”
Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The seat representing Alabama’s 10th district in the state legislature had long been held by Republicans. But former President Donald Trump won the district by a slim margin in 2020, making it a toss-up district that Democrats had set their sights on. Lands also ran for the seat in 2022, but narrowly lost to her Republican opponent.
Heather Williams, president of Democrats’ legislative campaign arm, called the special election “the first real test” of how voters would respond to the IVF ruling in Alabama and reproductive rights more broadly, and “a harbinger of things to come.”
“Republicans across the country have been put on notice that there are consequences to attacks on IVF — from the bluest blue state to the reddest red, voters are choosing to fight for their fundamental freedoms by electing Democrats across the country,” Williams said in a statement.
Democrats are hoping this year for a repeat of the 2022 midterm elections, when the Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and subsequent restrictions in states became a major motivator at the ballot box, fending off an expected red wave. Democrats are expecting that fallout from the IVF ruling to reinvigorate the voter base, keeping reproductive rights top of mind heading into the 2024 election.
Democrat Marilyn Lands wins Alabama special election after IVF, abortion rights campaigning
Democratic candidate Marilyn Lands on Tuesday won a special election for a state House seat in Alabama after making in vitro fertilization and abortion rights central to her campaign.
Lands, a licensed professional counselor, defeated Madison City Council member Teddy Powell, a Republican who once worked as a Defense Department budget analyst. The state’s 10th district in the Huntsville area seat was previously held by a GOP legislator.
“Alabama women have spoken—thank you District 10!!” Lands said Tuesday night in a post on X.
Lands had 63% of the vote to Powell’s 37% with all precincts reporting.
“The voters have spoken and I’m honored to have been considered for this office,” Powell said in a statement to Alabama Daily News. “I wish Mrs. Lands the absolute best as she goes on to serve the people of District 10 in the House of Representatives.”
Powell’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While campaigning, Lands focused on IVF and access to abortions, telling voters that she supports repealing the state’s near-total ban on abortions that went into effect after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Her campaign website notes endorsements from groups such as Planned Parenthood, Alabama AFL-CIO and the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Lands’ victory comes weeks after Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a GOP-backed bill to protect IVF after widespread backlash to a ruling by the state Supreme Court in February that threatened the procedure. Tuesday’s contest was seen as an early test for Democrats campaigning on IVF after the high court’s ruling.
The special election was called after David Cole, a Republican who defeated Lands in 2022 by 7 percentage points, pleaded guilty to a voter fraud charge last year and resigned his seat.
Republicans hold a 75-27 advantage over Democrats in the Alabama state House.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022, abortion has repeatedly appeared on the ballot and has consistently delivered blows to anti-abortion activists. It’s expected to remain a key issue in November but it’s unclear whether it’ll be as potent as it was in the midterm elections.
Mississippi GOP Gov. Tate Reeves to face Democrat Brandon Presley in the November election
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday won the Republican nomination as he seeks a second term, setting up a general election contest against Democrat Brandon Presley in the heavily conservative state.
Reeves defeated two first-time candidates: John Witcher, a physician who has criticized COVID-19 vaccinations, and David Hardigree, a military veteran. Presley, a cousin of rock ’n’ roll icon Elvis Presley, ran unopposed.
Presley said the Nov. 7 general election would come down to which candidate “has got guts and the backbone to stand up for the people of Mississippi and which candidate has consistently showed us that he will do whatever his lobbyist buddies want him to do and will not stand up for the people of Mississippi.”
Presley planned to take the stage at his victory party to “See See Rider,” the song Elvis Presley often used as walk-on music. The candidate said he would not sing, though.
“We’re trying to get votes,” Presley said in a phone interview before he was scheduled to speak to supporters in his hometown of Nettleton. “We’re not trying to lose them.”
Mississippi is one of three states holding races for governor in an off-year election. Despite Republicans holding all statewide offices, including the governorship for the past 20 years, Democratic Governors Association chair Phil Murphy has predicted the contest could be a “sleeper” — a state where the right Democrat could win.
Reeves, 49, has steadily worked his way up the political ladder since winning the race for state treasurer in 2003. He served two terms as treasurer and two terms as lieutenant governor before winning the governor’s race in 2019.
Reeves closed schools at the beginning of the pandemic and put some restrictions on businesses as COVID-19 cases spread, but he never ordered churches to close and he has often bragged that Mississippi was among the first states to remove limitations from businesses.
He also opposes Medicaid expansion, often referring to the government health insurance program as “welfare.”
“Brandon Presley and his party are happy to see people go on welfare,” Reeves said. “He campaigns on wanting more welfare. He thinks welfare is a destination. I think … a job is a destination for everyone in Mississippi — a job with benefits and health care and a chance to move up in the world.”
Reeves tells voters that “national liberals” are backing Presley, and he often touts two laws he signed limiting the rights of trans people: one in 2021 that prohibits transgender people from playing on girls’ or women’s sports teams and one this year that bans gender-affirming health care to transgender people younger than 18.
Reeves signed an income tax reduction into law last year and wants to eliminate the state income tax altogether. He also says he has fulfilled a 2019 campaign promise to increase teacher pay.
“Mississippi has momentum, and this is Mississippi’s time,” Reeves said. “To believe Brandon Presley’s campaign, you’ve got to believe that none of that is true.”
Presley, 46, a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, has highlighted the struggles of working families in one of the poorest states in the U.S. as he has campaigned for governor. Born a few weeks before his famous relative died, Presley often talks about growing up in a home where his widowed mother had trouble paying bills with the modest paycheck she earned at a garment factory.
“Tate Reeves doesn’t care anything about us. He doesn’t care anything about working people,” Presley said. “If you can’t write a campaign check, or you’re not part of his little club of buddies and insiders, you’re shut out of state government.”
Presley says he wants to eliminate the state’s 7% tax on groceries. He also says Mississippi should join 40 other states that have expanded Medicaid coverage to people working low-wage jobs that do not provide private health insurance coverage.
Dr. Martha Morrow, an optometrist who practices in Alabama but lives and votes in Mississippi, said she supports Presley because she sees him as an honest person who wants to improve the quality of life. Morrow said it’s crucial to expand Medicaid to people working low-income jobs.
“We’re going to have to stop the rural hospitals from closing,” Morrow said. “Tate Reeves can say all he wants to that it’s not a problem. It’s a problem. If you’re sick and you can’t get to a hospital because your hospital’s closed — people are dying already. And it’s going to continue.”
Sue Varner, a retired hairdresser from the Jackson suburb of Madison, said she voted for Reeves.
“I just like the way he handled COVID. I think he did a good job,” said Varner, adding that she has never received a COVID-19 vaccination because she does not trust them.
Reeves and Presley will also face independent candidate Gwendolyn Gray, a political newcomer, in the Nov. 7 general election. Gray, 68, leads a nonprofit organization called the Southern Foundation for Homeless Children, which offers nutrition programs, and says one of her main concerns as governor would be alleviating poverty.
Mississippi on Tuesday also had a three-person Republican primary for the second-highest office in state government, with first-term Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in a tight race against state Sen. Chris McDaniel, with educator Tiffany Longino trailing in a distant third.
Although the governor and lieutenant governor run as a ticket in some states, they run separately in Mississippi. The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate, chooses Senate committee leaders and has great leeway in deciding which bills live or die.