Republicans and Democrats alike have targeted Wisconsin as a must-win state in November’s poll.
Joe Biden won it by a margin of about 21,000 votes in the 2020 election, although Donald Trump challenged some vote tallies in his drive to prove that the election had been “stolen”.
Trump scored a narrow win in the state in the 2016 election, a result that played a crucial role in his victory over Hillary Clinton.
Milwaukee is on the western shore of Lake Michigan, north of Chicago and east of the state capital of Madison, and is a minority white, largely industrial city that votes Democratic, with a long history of racial segregation laws against Black residents. African Americans make up almost 39% of the population, with about 20% Hispanic or Latino.
In a tacit admission of the potential self-harm inflicted, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, described the reporting of the comment as “total bullshit”.
“He never said it like how it’s been falsely characterized as,” Cheung posted on X, insisting that Trump had been referring to crime and election issues.
Wrong. Total bullshit. He never said it like how it’s been falsely characterized as. He was talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are. https://t.co/BH0Q7exswB
— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) June 13, 2024
Democrats have seized on Donald Trump’s dismissal of Milwaukee as “a horrible city” by trumpeting the unflattering description on advertising hoardings, a month before the city in the swing state of Wisconsin hosts the Republican National Convention.
Trump reportedly made the comment in a meeting with congressional Republicans in Washington on Thursday, his first return to Capitol Hill since extremist supporters broke into Congress on 6 January 2021.
Republican party figures found themselves scrambling to contain the fallout from a political own goal over a city purposely chosen to host the convention on 15-18 July, because Wisconsin is expected to be key to the outcome of the 2024 election.
Trump and Biden are running neck and neck in the state, according to numerous polls.
The remark calling Milwaukee horrible drew immediate condemnation from Democrats. Republicans – recognising the extent of the possible damage – initially denied the comment had been made, before trying to soften the blow by putting it in various contexts.
🚨TRUMP TO HOUSE REPUBLICANS:
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) June 13, 2024
"Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city."
In a graphic sign of the high stakes, the Democratic election machine swiftly commissioned several billboards to be erected in Milwaukee, the local newspaper the Journal Sentinel reported.
One featured picture of Trump next to an image of the X post that broke the story. “TRUMP TO HOUSE REPUBLICANS: ‘Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city’.” it read.
The other had the incriminating quote next to a picture of the former president against a red background.
Ten billboards are planned to be placed throughout the city in the run-up to the convention to maximise the words’ effect.
Here’s how the justices voted in the supreme court’s decision to strike down a federal ban on bump stocks.
The ruling was 6-3, with the court’s liberal justices dissenting from the conservative majority’s decision.
Schumer condemns supreme court's 'unprecedented assault on public safety'
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has criticized the ruling on bump stocks and called the supreme court “even further to the right of Donald Trump”.
Bump stocks have played “a devastating role in many of the horrific mass shootings in our country,” Schumer said in a statement responding to the ruling.
The far-right Supreme Court continues their unprecedented assault on public safety by reversing the commonsense guidance issued in 2018 by the ATF … Sadly it’s no surprise to see the Supreme Court roll back this necessary public safety rule as they push their out of touch extreme agenda.
He added that he warned the Trump administration at the time that “the only way to permanently close this loophole is through legislation.” Schumer added:
Senate Democrats are ready to pass legislation to ban bump stocks but we will need votes from Senate Republicans.
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The National Association for Gun Rights celebrated the decision on bump stocks and called on the supreme court to issue similar rulings in cases involving “ghost guns” and pistol braces.
“The ATF has wandered so far out of its lane for so long, it can’t even find the road any more, ” said Dudley Brown, the association’s president.
The ATF has gone rogue in assuming lawmaking authority that it does not have with pistol brace rules, homemade firearms, who a gun dealer is, etc, and they must be reined in.
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Biden vows to 'continue to take action' on gun safety after court ruling
Joe Biden released a statement in light of the supreme court’s latest decision on bump stocks, saying:
“Today’s decision strikes down an important gun safety regulation. Americans should not have to live in fear of this mass devastation.”
He went on to add:
“I have used every tool in my administration to stamp out gun violence. I nominated the first Senate-confirmed director of the ATF since 2015. My administration ensured that the ATF has the funding it needs to address emerging firearm technologies like machine-gun conversion devices and ghost guns that pose a unique and acute threat to public safety.
Notwithstanding this decision, my administration will continue to take action. I took on the NRA and signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the most significant gun violence reduction legislation to pass Congress in nearly 30 years. My administration established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, made historic investments in mental health to support people in times of crisis, and expanded background checks to keep firearms out of the wrong hands.”
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Kamala Harris: 'Weapons of war have no place on the streets of a civil society'
Vice-President Kamala Harris has released the following statement in response to the supreme court’s ruling on bump stocks:
“Weapons of war have no place on the streets of a civil society. That is why Democrats and Republicans alike supported the federal government banning bump stocks after they were used to fire over 1,000 rounds into a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
Unfortunately, today’s supreme court ruling strikes down this important, commonsense regulation on devices that convert semiautomatic rifles into weapons that can fire hundreds of bullets per minute.
While the supreme court has once again rolled back progress, we will not allow the victims and survivors of 1 October to be forgotten. President Biden and I fought to pass the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, but our work is not done. We are calling on Congress to immediately ban bump stocks. We do not have a moment to spare nor a life to spare.”
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Reactions on the supreme court’s ruling on bump stocks are starting to come in, with Florida’s Democratic representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost tweeting:
“A disgraceful decision by the corrupt supreme court that will results in the death of more Americans, especially children.
Congress must act swiftly to pass a bump stocks ban. Time to organize.”
A disgraceful decision by the Corrupt Supreme Court that will results in the death of more Americans, especially children.
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) June 14, 2024
Congress must act swiftly to pass a Bump Stocks Ban. Time to Organize. https://t.co/GXBp91OoQh
The US supreme court’s decision to strike down a federal ban on ‘bump stocks’ marks a step back for gun control organisations.
The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports:
The top court’s ruling in Garland v Cargill nullifies the Trump administration’s 2018 regulation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) which ordered anyone who owned a bump stock to destroy it or hand it over to federal agents. The rule was passed in the after the devastating 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas, in which a gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 60 people and injuring almost 500.
After the ban, Michael Cargill, a US army veteran who owned a gun store in Austin, Texas, gave up several bump stocks in his possession. He then challenged the regulation before the supreme court.
The scrapping of the ban will dismay gun control organizations such as Sandy Hook Promise, which has warned that bump stocks make guns all the more deadly by allowing multiple shots to be fired every second with just one pull of the trigger. Public reaction was so strong after the Las Vegas disaster that even the National Rifle Association, a body notorious for opposing gun regulations, joined the call for the add-ons to be taken out of circulation.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor decries 'majority's artificially narrow definition' in dissent
In her dissent against the supreme court’s ruling on bump stocks, liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor said:
“When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.”
She adds that the “majority’s artificially narrow definition hamstrings the government’s efforts to keep machine guns from gunmen like the Las Vegas shooter.”
Meanwhile, conservative justice Clarence Thomas said that a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock is not a “machine gun” because it does not fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger” as the statute requires.
Conservative justice Samuel Alito echoed similar sentiments, saying that there was “simply no other way to read the statutory language.”
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Supreme court rules 6-3 in favor of challenge to ban on gun bump stocks
The supreme court has ruled 6-3 in favor of a challenge to a federal ban on gun ‘bump stock’ devices.
A bump stock is an accessory that allows semiautomatic weapons to fire like machine guns.
The vote was 6-3, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting.
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Supreme court to issue another round of decisions
The supreme court is due to issue another round of decisions at around 10am.
It remains to be seen whether the nation’s highest court will decide if Donald Trump is immune to criminal charges in the election interference case surrounding him.
Friday’s upcoming decisions will follow the court’s ruling on Thursday which upheld access to mifepristone, a common abortion pill, in a victory for reproductive rights.
Rashida Tlaib on supreme court scandals: 'We need urgent action to hold these unhinged, corrupt extremists accountable'
Michigan’s Democratic representative Rashida Tlaib has called for justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to be removed from the supreme court after a series of scandals surrounding their acceptance of luxury gifts.
In an address yesterday, Tlaib said:
“I know we need urgent action to hold these unhinged, corrupt extremists accountable. It is extremely disturbing that the United States supreme court, the highest court of our land, is the only court that does not having enforceable code of conducts…
It’s time to expand the supreme court. It’s time for reforms… We need to enact term limits to supreme court justices and enforce binding code of conducts, real reforms and expedite impeachment proceedings.”
The Supreme Court is facing a corruption crisis. We need to expand the Supreme Court, enact term limits on Supreme Court Justices, enforce a binding code of ethics, and expedite impeachment proceedings.
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) June 13, 2024
Thomas and Alito need to be impeached and removed from the bench. pic.twitter.com/pRQxjMqFDu
Here is more from Senate judiciary committee chair Dick Durbin on his revelation yesterday that justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose further details on his gifted private travel:
“As a result of our investigation and subpoena authorization, we are providing the American public greater clarity on the extent of ethical lapses by supreme court justices and the need for ethics reform.
Despite an approval rating near all-time lows and never-ending, self-inflicted scandals, Chief Justice Roberts still refuses to use his existing authority to implement an enforceable code of conduct. Until he acts, we will continue our push for the supreme court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to become law.”
According to documents obtained by the committee, GOP billionaire donor Harlan Crow revealed travel and gifts he gave to Thomas which Thomas failed to disclose.
Those include:
May 2017 private jet travel from St. Louis, MO, to Kalispell, MT, and return flight to Dallas, TX;
March 2019 private jet travel from Washington, DC, to Savannah, GA, and back; and
June 2021 private jet travel from Washington, DC, to San Jose, CA, and back.
Outrage grows over latest Clarence Thomas gift revelations as supreme court set to release decisions
Good morning,
Outrage is growing as more revelations surrounding justice Clarence Thomas’s acceptance of luxury gifts emerge while the nation’s highest court prepares to issue another set of opinions today.
On Thursday, the chair of the Senate judiciary committee, Dick Durbin, said that Thomas took at least three additional trips funded by GOP billionaire donor Harlan Crow which Clarence did not disclose.
“The Senate judiciary committee’s ongoing investigation into the supreme court’s ethical crisis … makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment,” Durbin said in a statement on Thursday.
Meanwhile, as the scandal surrounding the court thickens, the court is set to issue another set of opinions at 10am today following its decision yesterday to uphold access to mifepristone, a common abortion pill.
Here are other developments in US politics:
Donald Trump has made his first visit to Capitol Hill following the January 6 insurrection on 2021 where he was serenaded by Republican leaders.
Kamala Harris is set to travel to Atlanta as part of the Joe Biden administration’s economic opportunity tour for a moderated conversation on economic development.
