Author: M.D. Kittle

Kinder, Gentler Iowa Cattle Call of GOP Presidential Hopefuls Sees Ramaswamy, DeSantis, Haley Generate Most Buzz

M.D. Kittle

The latest cattle call of GOP presidential contestants — sans former President Donald Trump — mainly maintained Iowa nice, a departure from last month’s first fiery primary debate and a similar Christian conservative event in July hosted by conservative talk show host lightning rod Tucker Carlson.

The 10 presidential candidates who appeared at Saturday’s Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Annual Fall Banquet and Presidential Town Hall took relatively few direct shots at their rivals.

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Wisconsin State Senate Votes to Sack Controversial Elections Regulator, Overrides Evers’ Tax Cut Veto

M.D. Kittle

Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled state Senate on Thursday rejected Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe’s nomination to serve another four-year term, a move that normally would end the controversial regulator’s tenure in office.

But liberals are already challenging the Senate’s overwhelming vote to fire Wolfe, and the bureaucrat has defiantly said she’s not going anywhere.

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RFK Jr. Rips DNC in Letter Before Delegate Procedure Vote, Says DNC Has ‘Hijacked the Party Leadership’

M.D. Kittle

The Democratic Party has succumbed to the “siren of control,” according to a letter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. penned to the Democratic National Committee ahead of its controversial meeting that was expected to decide delegate procedures for the 2024 primary elections.

The Kennedy family scion running for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, spares no feelings in calling out the party of his famous father and uncle for losing its way.

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GOP Presidential Hopeful Tim Scott Unveils Economic Plan Ahead of Campaign Trip to Hawkeye State

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Tim Scott is unveiling his “Build, Don’t Borrow” economic plan as he prepares for another campaign trip to Iowa.

Scott says his proposal targets runaway government spending, while cutting taxes, expanding jobs and “unleashing American manufacturing and energy production” with his Made in America agenda.

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Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher’s Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Issues Subpoena in Chinese Lab Probe

M.D. Kittle

The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party led by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) issued its first subpoena in the committee’s ongoing investigation into the clandestine Chinese laboratory that local authorities uncovered in Reedley, California.

“It is deeply disturbing that a Chinese company set up a clandestine facility in small-town America that contained, per the CDC, ‘at least 20 potentially infectious agents’ like HIV and the deadliest known form of malaria. We are grateful to the city of Reedley for their cooperation,” Gallagher said in a statement.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to Lay Out Blueprint for ‘Rolling Back the Powers’ of the Administrative State in Major Speech

M.D. Kittle

Republican Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday will lay out his plan to break the grip of power held by the administrative state.

“There is an unconstitutional, fourth branch of government that is choking American democracy, and it is called the administrative state,” Ramaswamy asserts in an advance copy of a white paper speech provided to The Star News Network by the Ohio entrepreneur’s campaign.

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Former Memphis Officers Federally Indicted in Tyre Nichols’ Death; Still Silence on ‘Vendetta’ Allegations

M.D. Kittle

If Tyre Nichols was targeted by members of a Memphis Police Department violent crime unit because of his alleged involvement with one of the officers’ ex-wives, there’s nothing on the subject included in a new federal indictment against the five former law enforcement officials.

A federal grand jury in Memphis on Tuesday returned a four-count indictment against Emmitt Martin III, 31; Tadarrius Bean, 24; Demetrius Haley, 30; Desmond Mills, Jr., 33; and Justin Smith, 28.

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Republican Presidential Candidates Back in Iowa for Faith & Freedom Coalition Cattle Call This Weekend

M.D. Kittle

Ohio entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is back in the kickoff caucus state this week, barnstorming eastern Iowa in five stops in 24 hours.

In fact, the Hawkeye State will be a hive of presidential campaign activity in the coming days — leading up to and through Saturday’s packed Faith & Freedom Coalition Town Hall featuring most of the crowded field of Republican Party presidential candidates.

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson Leads Efforts to Seek Records on Saudi Arabia’s Role In 9/11 Attacks

M.D. Kittle
Sen. Ron Johnson

On this 22nd anniversary of 9/11, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is demanding the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation turn over the complete, unredacted records of Saudi Arabia’s role in the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Johnson, ranking member of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and subcommittee chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), are seeking a full explanation of any ongoing need for classification of any portions of these records.

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New Iowa State University Poll Shows Trump Up By 37 Points in Hawkeye State

M.D. Kittle

Former President Donald Trump is dominating the field of Republican presidential hopefuls in the Hawkeye State, according to an Iowa State University/Civiqs poll released Friday.

The poll dropped a day before Trump and GOP presidential nominee rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, are slated to appear at the Cy-Hawk showdown, the much-anticipated annual college football game between the Iowa State Cyclones and the Iowa Hawkeyes in Ames.

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Bad News for Biden: New CNN Poll Shows Trump, Other GOP Candidates Could Beat Him in 2024

M.D. Kittle

The news just keeps getting worse for President Joe Biden and his re-election bid.

Already facing an overwhelming majority of Americans who do not want to see him run again (including an alarming number of Democrats), the liberal incumbent is polling under former President Trump and other GOP presidential candidates, according to a new CNN poll.

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Trump to Attend Iowa-Iowa State Rivalry Game, While Rivals Ramaswamy and Hutchinson Rally

M.D. Kittle

Saturday’s Cy-Hawk showdown will feature an added layer of competition, the kind the first-in-the-nation caucus state has grown accustomed to.

Former President Donald Trump and GOP presidential rivals Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson will be in attendance at annual intrastate battle between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

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Interview: Long-Shot Presidential Hopeful Doug Burgum Says He’s In Campaign Until At Least the First Nominating Contests

M.D. Kittle

North Dakota Governor and GOP presidential hopeful Doug Burgum may be lagging far behind in the national polls, but this long-shot candidate is brimming with confidence.

Still hobbled by a severe Achille’s tendon injury suffered during a pick-up basketball game the day before last month’s pivotal first Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, Burgum says he’s here to stay for the long haul. At least until the first culling contests early next year in the 2024 nomination chase.

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Court Rules Wisconsin Elections Commission Illegally Used Voter Registration Form

M.D. Kittle

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has lost a lawsuit challenging its use of an unlawful voter registration form, the latest legal problem for a controversial state elections regulator with a history of bending the law.

The lawsuit, filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on behalf of Wisconsin taxpayer and voter Richard Braun, challenged the use of the National Mail Voter Registration Form in Wisconsin.

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Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan Says Political Outsider Vivek Ramaswamy ‘Shouldn’t be Running for President’

M.D. Kittle

Although he’s decided not to seek the GOP presidential nomination, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has plenty of advice on who shouldn’t be a candidate.

Hogan told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Ohio businessman and political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy “shouldn’t be running for president.

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RFK Jr. Praises New Hampshire’s Fight for Primary, Calls DNC’s Changes ‘Undemocratic Attempt to Rig the Primary Process’

M.D. Kittle

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is praising New Hampshire Democrats for defying the Democratic National Committee and keeping the Granite State primary the first in the nation.

As Fox News reported, last Friday marked the deadline for New Hampshire to meet the DNC’s demand that it follow the national party’s new presidential nominating calendar.

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson Introduces Resolution to Overturn Biden’s Next ‘Reckless’ Student Loan Bailout

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined 18 of his Republican colleagues on Tuesday in introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval.

The CRA aims to end President Joe Biden’s latest end-around to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this summer striking down the administration’s original student loan bailout.

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Ramaswamy Blasts DeSantis ‘Monster PAC’ Following Report of Fake News Dirty Politics

M.D. Kittle

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is blasting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and “Monster PAC” following a report exposing the political action committee’s campaign in “spreading dirt” and “misstatements” about the poll-rising Ramaswamy.

“It came out yesterday that the DeSantis $100m+ Monster PAC is taking credit with their donors for ‘spreading dirt’ and manufacturing fake attacks on me,” the Ohio biotech entrepreneur said in a statement.

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FBI Cites ‘Ongoing Criminal Investigation’ in Refusing to Release Hunter Biden Gun Records, Just as the Agency Is Doing in The Star News Network FOIA Lawsuit

M.D. Kittle

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is citing an “ongoing criminal investigation” in refusing to turn over records on Hunter Biden’s trashed gun.

It’s the same suspect blocking argument the FBI is trying to use in The Star News Network’s lawsuit demanding the agency turn over the Covenant School killer’s manifesto in Nashville.

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Post Debate, Georgia Arrest and Mugshot, Trump Continues to Dominate GOP Race

M.D. Kittle

So much for indictments, mug shots, and the first GOP presidential primary debate. Teflon Donald Trump remains the clear favorite among Republican voters, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll.

The online survey of 1,500 adults, most of them registered voters, provides an interesting snapshot on just how important last week’s debate was — or wasn’t — and how unpopular some of the GOP presidential candidates are.

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Wisconsin Assembly Republicans Roll Out Nearly $3 Billion Tax Cut Plan

M.D. Kittle

In the wake of Governor Tony Evers’ gutting of a historic tax cut proposal earlier this summer, Republicans are pushing another plan they said would deliver nearly $3 billion in tax relief for retirees and the middle class.

Conservative lawmakers said the plan to tap into the state’s projected $4 billion budget surplus is a “second chance” for the liberal governor to “do the right thing” and return overpaid tax dollars back to Wisconsin’s taxpayers.

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Ramaswamy Fires Back at Haley on Her Israel Claims, as War of Words Intensifies

M.D. Kittle

Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is firing back against Republican presidential opponent Nikki Haley in a blistering war of words over his position on U.S.-Israel relations.

Ramaswamy took aim at the former United Nations ambassador after her appearance Tuesday on Fox News in which she claimed that Ramaswamy would “abandon Israel” as president.

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GOP Presidential Hopeful Doug Burgum Campaigns in New Hampshire, Hobbling on in Long-Shot Bid for the White House

M.D. Kittle

Republican presidential hopeful Doug Burgum is limping his way through New Hampshire this week after suffering a leg injury before last week’s first GOP presidential primary debate. It would seem the North Dakota governor’s campaign for the White House is hobbled, too, after he failed to gain much traction last week in Milwaukee. Burgum made campaign stops in Derry and Bedford on Tuesday afternoon. He’s expected to be at Los Primos Mexican Restaurant in Merrimack for a 1 p.m. meet and greet on Wednesday, followed by a stop at Novel Iron Works at 3:30 p.m. in Greenland. The long-shot candidate shouldered on, as he attempts to recover from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered last Tuesday in a pick-up basketball game in Milwaukee — a day before the first Republican presidential primary debate. He took the debate stage in an ankle boot, a necessary accouterment Burgum continues to wear to his Granite State campaign stops. The governor said he hasn’t missed a campaign event, and he doesn’t intend to. “I came from this town of 300 people [his hometown in North Dakota] and everyone was wishing me well, you know, ‘Go to Milwaukee, break a leg. I took it a little…

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Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher’s Committee on China Hosts Roundtable Event on Chinese Communist Threat to U.S. Manufacturing

M.D. Kittle

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party will be in manufacturing-dependent Wisconsin Wednesday afternoon for a roundtable discussion on communist China’s “deliberate undermining of American manufacturing,” according to a press release.

Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08) will host the roundtable beginning at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Stoughton, WI.

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Ramaswamy Lays Out Recalibrated America First Foreign Policy Vision: ‘We Will be Uncle Sucker No More’

M.D. Kittle

As he takes heat for proposing that the United States roll back aid to Israel in pursuit of stronger regional relationships for the key American ally, GOP top tier presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says he wants a new approach to U.S. relations with friends and foes alike.

And he’s harkening back to the founders’ vision of avoiding “entangling alliances” to get there. 

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Rides Debate Momentum to Second Place in New Poll

M.D. Kittle

Ohio biotech entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has overtaken Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for second place in the Republican Party nomination chase, surging several points since last week’s debate, according to internal polling.

The online survey of 1,500 likely Republican voters, conducted for the campaign by pollster Cygnal, was taken post-debate from Aug. 24-26. It shows Ramaswamy in second place at 15 percent, with DeSantis in third at 12 percent.

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Republican Candidates Need Not Apply: Media Tracker’s New Study Shows Just How Politically Biased Google’s Search Results Are

M.D. Kittle

Google has long been accused of suppressing conservative speech, but a new study shows the internet search engine giant is playing favorites with Democrats in the 2024 presidential race.

By typing in just one query, “Presidential campaign websites,” Google returned only Democratic Party candidates — some of whom are not even running in 2024, according to Media Research Center, the media watchdog and parent of conservative news site NewsBusters, which is “committed to exposing and combating liberal media bias.”

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RFK Jr. Uses Surprise Country Hit Song ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ to Blast GOP Presidential Candidates in This Week’s Debate

M.D. Kittle

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hasn’t declared a winner in this week’s GOP presidential debate, but he does know who the loser is: The American people.

The Kennedy family scion and Democrat challenger to President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party presidential nomination blasted the eight Republican candidates who took the stage in Milwaukee as out of touch with the average American.

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Despite Trump’s Absence, Plenty of Fireworks at First Republican Presidential Debate of the 2024 Season

M.D. Kittle

For those who thought a Trump-less GOP presidential primary debate was doomed to be a snooze fest, the two-hour political bar brawl disabused them of that notion.

The first Republican National Committee debate Wednesday night in Milwaukee proved to be a tinder box for the slate of candidates trailing former President Donald Trump by as much as 40 percentage points or more.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Rallies in Milwaukee Night Before First Republican Primary Debate

M.D. Kittle

With just 24 hours to go before the first Republican presidential primary debate of the 2024 campaign, Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy spent Tuesday evening as he has spent almost every waking hour since launching his bid for the White House in February: Campaigning.

Ramaswamy held a high-energy rally at downtown Milwaukee’s beer garden, just feet away from the Fiserv Forum, home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and site of Wednesday evening’s debate.

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Conservative Firebrand Kari Lake Plans to Serve as a Surrogate for Trump at Wednesday’s GOP Presidential Candidates’ Debate

M.D. Kittle

Arizona Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake will be in attendance at Wednesday’s first Republican presidential candidates’ debate in Milwaukee, and she plans to speak up for an absent former President Donald Trump.

Lake, a close Trump ally, tells The Star News Network that she will do everything in her power to return the former president to the White House.

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New Des Moines Register/NBC News Poll Shows Trump Well Ahead In Iowa, but Trump Pollster Says Lead Is Likely Bigger

M.D. Kittle

A new poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers shows former President Donald Trump with a significant lead over his closest competitor in the crowded field of GOP presidential nominee combatants.

But Trump’s pollster says the Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll appears to undercut wider support of the former president in the Hawkeye State by significant sampling of independents and former Democratic Party caucusgoers.

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Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil Hosts Roundtable on Combatting the Scourge of Fentanyl

M.D. Kittle

As the scourge of fentanyl continues to rack up victims across the nation, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) was joined on Thursday by local and national law enforcement officials in Milwaukee County for a roundtable discussion on combatting the deadly drug.

The event, held in the suburban Milwaukee community of Franklin, included officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and North Central High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA),  state legislative leaders, and medical experts.

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