Gabbard was discussing her new book, For Love of Country, and how she writes in one chapter that the Democratic Party has hostility towards religious people and how Democratic elites wish to remove religion altogether. Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, was then asked if she believed that her former party is on “the side of evil,” to which she agreed, explaining how people in power “put themselves in the position of being the ultimate authority.”

“They see themselves as the ones who should be the arbiter of who gets to speak, and who does not get to speak,” Gabbard said to Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody. “They see themselves as the arbiter of objective truth, that they are the ones who can say, ‘no, David, if you believe that you are a woman, then you can be a woman.”

Gabbard further explained that the Democratic Party’s denial of objective truth has had major impacts on women and girls, pointing to the Biden administration’s recent adjustments to Title IX. The denial of objective truth by people in power, Gabbard said, removes guardrails in society where the truth becomes whatever they desire, “putting themselves in that position of trying to be God.”

“They believe they should be able to control us in every aspect of our lives,” Gabbard said. “They believe that they have the authority and the right to take away God-given, truly God-given rights and freedoms that are enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. You can see in dictators in different countries and throughout history how dangerous that mindset is and the evil that comes from that.”

Gabbard’s book, in which she explains why she left the Democratic Party, released on April 30, and as of Thursday morning is Amazon’s No. 1 seller for books related to U.S. national government.

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Gabbard is rumored to be on former President Donald Trump’s short list for vice presidential candidates, a position she has said she would be ready to accept to “serve my country” if offered. In an interview from last month, Gabbard said she does not doubt Trump’s loyalty to the United States, pointing to how he is running for president again despite his multitude of legal battles. 

In the event that she did become Trump’s vice president, however, Gabbard said her loyalty would always be to the United States, and not to a specific political party.

The decree, signed on Friday, May 10, by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, the minister of health, and the minister of the economy, states that people diagnosed with “transsexualism, dual-role transvestism, gender identity disorder in childhood, other gender identity disorders, gender identity disorder (unspecified), fetish transvestism and egodystonic sexual orientation” would be covered for their “mental health problem” under the country’s Essential Health Insurance Plan.

“In the field of mental health, the Essential Health Insurance Plan (PEAS) considers the mental health problems contemplated in the Chapter on Mental and Behavioral Disorders of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) of the World Health Organization, in force at the time of health care, as insurable conditions that must be financed for all insured persons, including the provision of medical supplies,” the decree said on the president’s website.

Human Rights Watch disagreed with the decree’s categorization by calling them “obsolete classifications.”

“It employs obsolete classifications related to gender identity and sexual orientation that the World Health Organization (WHO) replaced in the most recent International Classification of Diseases, published in 2019. The decree also further calcifies prejudices against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Peru which have led to violence and discrimination against this population,” researcher Cristian Gonzalez Cabrera wrote in his analysis of the decree.

Peruvian transgender activists denounced the decision.

“100 years after the decriminalization of homosexuality, the @Minsa_Peru has no better idea than to include trans people in the category of mental illnesses. We demand and we will not rest until its repeal,” Jheinser Pacaya, director of Outfest Peru, said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

A researcher for Lima’s Scientific University of the South suggested that this move could lead to “conversion therapy.”

“You can’t ignore the context that this is happening in a super-conservative society, where the LGBT community has no rights and where labeling them as mentally ill opens the door to conversion therapy,” researcher Percy Mayta-Tristan reportedly said.

Chaya Raichik, owner of the social media account Libs of TikTok, responded with a reminder that TikTok transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney went to Peru last year to “feel safe” from the onslaught of online harassment.

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“Remember when Dylan Mulvaney fled the US to Peru to ‘feel safe’? Well now Peru just passed a bill classifying trans people as ‘mentally ill.’ Dylan Mulvaney would be officially considered mentally ill in Peru. What do you think of this new policy?” she asked her social media followers.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Mulvaney for comment.

Trustee Jason House, was voted to take on the role, in which he could fill in for the mayor in certain situations. The board said the mayor was ignoring essential duties as mayor and the move was needed so Dolton residents can continue to receive essential services.

“We’re really just trying to make sure that if something critical comes up, that there’s a signature on deck that can move it forward,” House said.

Henyard, who was not present at the board meeting, is expected to veto the plan. House reiterated that the appointment was not a replacement for her job. 

“This is not a replacement. This ordinance is strictly in the refusal or inability for the mayor to do her duties, an appointed senior trustee to step in and make sure the necessary documents are signed and business moves forward,” House said.

Henyard, who has been dubbed the “worst mayor in America,” for some of her behavior, including spending Dolton taxpayer money on a luxurious vacation in Las Vegas. Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was hired to investigate Henyard, but Henyard vetoed the plan. 

“How dare you think you can come into someone’s town and investigate? You will not get paid,” she said.

On the trip to Las Vegas, one ally of the mayor alleged she was assaulted by one of the trustees. She claims she was fired from her role for speaking out against the assault.

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According to Fox News Digital, Henyard, who has said “God chose me,” and has a salary of $300,000, which is higher than the Governor of Illinois. The average salary for those who live in Dolton is just under $48,000 a year.

Dolton residents have called for her resignation. At the last board meeting she attended, she was met with boos.

Despite being in hospice since last February, Jason Carter said that his grandfather is doing OK, but he is nearing the end of his life.

“He really is, I think, coming to the end that, as I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him, and there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end and I think he has been there in that space,” Jason Carter said.

Jason Carter discussed a recent visit to see his grandfather in Plains, Georgia, where they spent their time watching an Atlanta Braves game.

“I said, ‘Pa Pa … people ask me how you’re doing, and I say I don’t know.’ And he said, ‘Well, I don’t know myself.’ And so, he’s still there,” Jason Carter said.

As the oldest living president, Carter has survived metastatic brain cancer, liver cancer, and also brain surgery after a fall in 2019. 

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Carter’s wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, died last November. A strong mental health advocate, Rosalynn created the President’s Commission on Mental Health during her time as first lady, resulting in increased research funding and broader treatment access to mental healthcare. The Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum has occurred for 28 years, but the one on Tuesday was the first since Rosalynn’s death. 

“This is, of course, the first of these forums since that day,” Jason Carter said. “But the outpouring of love and support that we as a family received from the people in this room and from the rest of the world was just so remarkable and meaningful to us.”

“This class, this generation, in this time in our society must stop pretending that the things we see around us are normal,” Butker said to the Catholic liberal arts college over the weekend in Atchison, Kansas.

In speaking of the deadly sin of pride, he took a shot at Pride Month, which is celebrated each year in the month of June as it commemorates lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride.

“Not the deadly sins sort of ‘pride’ that has an entire month dedicated to it but the true, God-centered pride that is cooperating with the Holy Ghost to glorify him,” he said.

LGBT activist Justice Horn took offense at the football star’s comment.

“Harrison Butker doesn’t represent Kansas City nor has he ever. Kansas City has always been a place that welcomes, affirms, and embraces our LGBTQ+ community members,” Horn wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The Chiefs kicker called on students to stand up for Catholic teachings.

“The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Butker said. “We fear speaking truth because now, unfortunately, truth is in the minority.”

Butker had some tough words for priests needing to be held to a higher standard.

“Sadly, many priests we are looking to for leadership are the same ones who prioritize their hobbies or even photos with their dogs and matching outfits for the parish directory. It’s easy for us laymen and women to think that in order for us to be holy that we must be active in our parish and try to fix it,” he said.

The 28-year-old athlete added more criticism of the church’s handling of the pandemic.

“We saw during the pandemic that too many bishops were not leaders at all and they were motivated by fear of being sued,” he said. “Their actions, intentional or unintentional, showed that the sacraments don’t actually matter because countless people died alone without access to the sacraments, and it’s a tragedy we must never forget.”

The football star took aim at hypocritical Catholics pushing dangerous ideas.

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“From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common: They are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn’t cut it,” Butker explained.

“These are the sorts of things we are told in polite society to not bring up. You know the difficult and unpleasant things, but if we are going to be men and women for this time in history, we need to stop pretending that the ‘Church of nice’ is a winning proposition,” he said.

Rodgers sat down for an interview with Tucker Carlson on Tuesday to share his views on various controversies, including previous speculation about being a vice presidential finalist for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and how he’s “stood up” for himself.

“The last four years of my life I went from a pretty beloved athlete to a very polarizing figure,” Rodgers said on Carlson’s X show.

Rodgers said he’s experienced “a lot of character assassinations.”

Carlson laughed, “I noticed.”

The football player acknowledged that there are many “great athletes” who’ve kept their opinions private but said he loves this country.

“I got to a point where I’ve made my money. I have a platform. I’ve had success in my business. What’s the worst that you could do to me?” Rodgers said to Carlson. “I feel good about the way I’ve stood up for myself.”

Rodgers said that when it was revealed that he was a possible contender on the vice presidential short list for Kennedy, he felt the pressure of a “total character assassination” on him.

“When it came out from the campaign that I was to be a finalist to be Bobby’s vice president, there was a total character assassination with some bizarre story from 12 years ago that somebody thought they heard something that I was questioning,” he said.

In March, Rodgers was reported to have told people, including a CNN reporter, that he believed the Sandy Hook shooting to be a “government inside job.” Rodgers responded, denying the accusation.

Kennedy eventually chose attorney Nicole Shanahan as his vice presidential pick, but Rodgers expressed to Carlson that he was “interested” and had “thought about it.”

“I love this country and I want to see it thrive,” he said. “There’s just a lot of issues right now that seem really un-American. And I think there’s a lot of red-blooded Americans. People are like, how can Trump have such support? Because people are fed up with it.”

“When Bobby came to me and said, ‘Would you think about being my running mate?’ And I said, ‘Are you serious? I’m a f***ing football player.’ But I love this country, and I’d love to be a part of bringing it back to what she used to be,” he recounted to Carlson about his conversation with Kennedy.

Carlson followed up with a question, “Did you think about it?”

“Oh, yeah, I thought about it, and I wanted to hear what he had to say about it,” Rodgers said.

Kennedy responded on social media to Carlson’s interview with Rodgers.

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“Grateful to this man for his courage, integrity and the relentless brand of critical thinking that makes democracy work,” Kennedy said.

Rodgers slammed the media and his critics, “I’m not beholden. I have a contract, but I’m not beholden to anybody. I’m dangerous to them because I speak my mind. I’m not a cliche-ridden star athlete. I’m a loose cannon to them.”

“I don’t understand why people are not taking [Trump] seriously,” the actor said during an appearance on The View to promote his new film, Ezra.

“You read about it historically and other countries that didn’t take the people seriously,” he added.

De Niro gave the example of “Hitler and Mussolini” and how people who warned about them were treated as “fools and clowns.”

“Who does not think that this guy is going to do exactly what he says he’s going to do?” he asked as the audience and television hosts applauded.

“And then what? We’re gonna sit around and say what? ‘We told you so?'” the Hollywood star said on Tuesday.

De Niro said a Trump reelection would “change this country for everybody.”

“[Trump supporters] might think it’s going to make their life better,” he warned, adding that they are supporting “anger and hate” when they vote for the former president.

“Those people who support him with anger and hate — because that’s what he’s about — they’re going to see,” he said.

“I see what a hateful, mean-spirited, awful thing he is,” the actor said.

“When I say I want to punch him in the face, I want to because of what he said to a bystander at one of his rallies, that he wanted to punch them in the face. You don’t talk that way to people. What kind of person does that?” the Goodfellas star said.

De Niro then gave an expletive-filled rant that he worried the former president wants to “do the worst thing he can possibly do.”

The View censored his profane audio, but he seemed to say to the hosts about Trump, “His slogan should be ‘F*** America. I want to f*** America.'”

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg interrupted him to add, “If he becomes president again, listen, he’s not going to not stop being president. You understand this? His idea is to stay in until he drops dead.”

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“That’s it,” De Niro agreed with Goldberg.

“Imagine if he actually did win the presidency. It’s over. We’re going to have such civil strife,” he explained. “It’s what he envisions the world to be, which is chaos and craziness.”

In the spring and summer of 1979, a series of diplomatic missteps and miscommunications contributed to then-President Jimmy Carter losing a greater share of the Jewish vote than any Democratic presidential candidate in American history. The Carter administration’s most significant error stemmed from maneuvering at the United Nations. 

When Arab states introduced Security Council Resolution 465 condemning Israeli settlements and describing Jerusalem as “occupied territory,” Carter wisely declined to support the resolution. Later, believing that the objectionable language had been removed, Carter and then-Secretary of State Cyrus Vance approved a vote in support, only to learn after the fact that much of the inflammatory language about Jerusalem had been retained. This blunder not only propelled Carter to lose to Sen. Ted Kennedy in the New York primary, but it cost him 26 points of the Jewish vote that had supported him in 1976, dropping from 71% to 45% support in the 1980 general election. Worried about rising antisemitism and unsure of Carter’s intentions for Israel, Jewish voters abandoned Carter in favor of independent candidate John Anderson. Ronald Reagan’s 39% was also the highest share of the Jewish vote for a Republican nominee since Dwight Eisenhower.

How quaint yesteryear’s outrage over U.N. machinations seems from the vantage of spring 2024. In the seven months since Hamas’s barbaric Oct. 7 attack, we’ve witnessed a concerted and emboldened effort by Democratic leaders in the administration and Congress to force maximum appeasement by Israel and empower antisemitic behavior in public life. Importantly, this has been the Biden administration’s instinct from the start. On the day of the attacks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken initially posted that he “encouraged Turkey’s advocacy for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages by Hamas immediately” only to delete the post and replace it with “Israel has the right to defend itself, rescue any hostages, and protect its citizens.” On the same day, the State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs posted that it “unequivocally condemned the attack of Hamas terrorists and the loss of life that has incurred. We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing” — only to delete and replace it with a generic condemnation of the attack.

Thus, from early October, even as President Joe Biden told Israel, “You are not alone,” his embrace seemed designed to constrain America’s chief ally in the Middle East rather than empower it. As the weeks unfolded, a diplomatic charade of the administration talking tough to Israel in public while effectively greenlighting its operations in private gave way to clear attempts to undermine the legitimacy of Israel’s prosecution of a just war, most notably Biden’s State of the Union quip that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were going to have a “Come to Jesus” conversation. In March, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took to the Senate floor to issue a call for new elections to replace Netanyahu — an unprecedented and brazen attempt to interfere with the internal affairs of a close ally. Then, finally, after the World Central Kitchen tragedy, Biden seized on the moment to try and force Israel to stand down, accusing Israel of not doing enough to protect aid workers or civilians and calling for an immediate ceasefire. Continuing in form after Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on Israel two weeks later, the administration leaked that Biden told Netanyahu to “take the win” rather than retaliate.

Finally, in an unprecedented attempt to undermine Israel in negotiations and on the battlefield, Biden announced on Wednesday that an invasion of Rafah would result in the United States halting shipments of critical offensive weaponry.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden told CNN.

“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he added. “But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to — we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

Meanwhile, across the U.S., the landscape of the public square has been equally bleak. The administration hesitated to confront thinly, if at all, veiled antisemitism masquerading as progressive principle for fear of internal backlash. Only belatedly did Biden make a speech and announce expanded campus antisemitism initiatives as the protests and the school year wound down. What began with callously tearing down missing fliers for Israeli and American hostages has metastasized into full-fledged rebellion against support for the only Western democracy in the Middle East in favor of an open-armed embrace of terrorist entities such as Hamas and Hezbollah. As campuses across the nation descend into violence and antisemitic attacks have spiked nearly 400% since Oct. 7, one can only wonder how much is too much for American Jews.

The Jewish abandonment of Carter in 1980 proved to be an anomaly. Without another exception, Jewish voters have overwhelmingly supported Democrats since the early 20th century. In 2021, the Pew Research Center found nearly 7 in 10 Jewish voters still support Democrats. However, the simmering tension in the Democratic coalition between its traditional (Jewish-supported) wing and the newer, progressive flank has reached a flashpoint. To that end, AIPAC has committed to spending $100 million in Democratic primaries against progressive candidates in what looks to be an all-out war within the party. 

In 1979, Carter frantically reached out to Jewish groups after realizing his administration’s error. By contrast, in 2024 the Biden team seems much more concerned with losing Arab support in Michigan. Barely a month after the Oct. 7 attack, NBC News reported on polling in the state that found two-thirds of Arab and Muslim Democrats opposing Biden and three-quarters willing to consider a third candidate. There are 240,000 Muslims in Michigan, a state Biden won in 2020 by 150,000 votes. By comparison, the state is home to just over 100,000 Jewish adults. However, it is unclear if Biden’s cynical math will play well in the rest of the battleground states.

If Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) rejection of the progressive label and forceful moral clarity in support of Israel is any indication, the Pennsylvania voters Biden needs are likely nonplussed by his Israel policy. In a recent interview with Chris Stirewalt, Fetterman gave an idea of how university radicalism is seen by Pennsylvanians, saying, “There is a germ of antisemitism in all of these protests — and sometimes it flares up.” The junior senator then continued, “Israel has not only a right to defend itself but to strike back against its aggressors. … For true peace, you cannot allow Hamas to function.” This is a position at direct odds with the Biden administration’s efforts to prevent an invasion of Rafah and the ultimate defeat of Hamas.

Will enough Jewish voters abandon Biden to make a difference in the 2024 outcome? Outside of the Orthodox community, former President Donald Trump remains wildly unpopular. Furthermore, there are extreme elements on the Right, such as Nick Fuentes and the Proud Boys, with their own history of trafficking in antisemitism. But despite Trump’s execrable equivocation over Charlottesville, the vast majority of the Right has repudiated this element time and again, consigning it to the margins of political discourse. Former Rep. Steve King is no longer in Congress. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is a pariah. This stands in stark contrast to the progressive embrace of the rank antisemitism of Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) or the indefensible timidity on display in the face of deplorable behavior on elite campuses across America. 

It’s easy to envision a scenario in which many Jewish voters just don’t show up on Election Day. Furthermore, many Jewish voters are highly concentrated in bright blue states that Biden will surely carry regardless of turnout. 

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But even if Jewish voters don’t abandon Biden in battleground states, the rest of America is watching, and they do not share Biden’s hesitation about Israel. In fact, the Harvard CAPS-Harris survey consistently finds that 80% of voters support Israel in its conflict with Hamas. And while people typically don’t vote on foreign policy, the outlandish campus protests are transmogrifying this into one about American values. 

Voters who may not be moved by the foreign policy component are likely to have strong feelings about intifada banners hanging from university administration buildings and Palestinian flags flown in place of Old Glory. An escalation of these tactics in Chicago this summer by an emboldened progressive wing could very well spell electoral disaster for Biden in November.

Steve Stampley (@stevestampley) is a conservative writer and former Hill staffer. He’s contributed to the Washington Examiner, the Dispatch, National Review, ArcDigital, and elsewhere.

Is Joe Biden the new Jimmy Carter? The comparisons are striking. The most recent Gallup poll found Biden’s job approval at an anemic 38%, just a shade above Carter’s 34% that Gallup found at a similar point in the latter’s presidency. Moreover, Biden, like Carter before him, is plagued by domestic problems and international crises. Carter and Biden struggled to tame inflation, and as Biden is now handling a hostage crisis involving an Iranian-backed terrorist group in Israel, so also did Carter have to handle the Iran hostage crisis.

There is an instinctive tendency for conservatives to compare every Democratic president to Carter. The 39th president serves as a kind of symbol for what the Right sees as the failures of postwar liberalism and the incompetence of the ruling class of the Democratic Party. As conservatives usually think that the current Democratic president, whoever that might be, embodies these same failures, they look in hopeful expectation to the prospect that he will meet the same electoral fate that Carter did in 1980. This impulse is perhaps even greater when it comes to Biden, and not just because of external circumstances. Like Carter before him, Biden seems utterly incapable of handling the basic duties of governance.

But in fact the differences between Biden and Carter are just as striking. For one, Carter fought against the demands from the left wing of his party for greater government spending. Inflation was running high during Carter’s tenure, and the president called for austerity on the home front, even as he proposed increasing military spending to counter the new militarism of the Soviet Union, which invaded Afghanistan under his tenure. Carter also pushed for welfare reform and generally sought ways of making government serve the same functions more effectively for the same cost. For all of this, he drew a primary challenge from Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Carter ultimately won the nomination, but he had to struggle through the primaries to win it and beg Kennedy to bury the hatchet at the party’s convention that summer.

Biden has made no such moves to aggravate the Left. In the face of inflation hitting 40-year highs in 2022 and remaining sticky ever since, Biden has kept the government’s spending spigot running at full blast. This year, Washington, D.C., is running a deficit that is roughly 6% of GDP, unprecedented in a period of peace and economic growth. But the Left demands, so Biden relents. And while Carter and Biden have similar overall job approvals, Carter suffered more among Democrats, while Biden has sacrificed independent support to hold his party together. 

So it goes in the realm of foreign affairs, especially the Middle East. Both Carter and Biden have been saddled with crises that they could not successfully handle, but those efforts are qualitatively different. In November 1979, American diplomats stationed in Tehran, Iran, were taken hostage by the supporters of the Islamic Republic, a radical Islamist government under the direction of Ayatollah Khomeini. Initially, the crisis gave Carter a noticeable bump in the opinion polls. Before the crisis, the Gallup poll found the president’s job approval at a paltry 30%, but shortly after, it shot up to 60% in late 1979.

But the “rally around the flag” effect was not to last. The crisis dragged on and on, furthering the impression that Carter was out of his depth. The administration’s diplomatic overtures failed to secure the release of the hostages, and Operation Eagle Claw, the military operation to release the hostages, ended in catastrophe, with one of the helicopters crashing. The Iranian debacle prompted Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to resign, and by the spring of 1980, the president’s job approval was sinking once again.

Comparing how Carter dealt with the events of 1979-80 to Biden’s approach today, we see superficial similarities but deeper differences. Then as now, there are American hostages who have been taken hostage by Islamic extremists. And while Americans as a whole are angry at Biden for his failure to secure their release — RealClearPolitics found his average approval on foreign policy is 35%, lower than it was a year ago — that is hardly the animating impulse on the Democratic side. If anything, Democrats, especially young Democrats, are driven not by a desire for more aggressive action to free American hostages but rather to restrain Israel’s efforts to ensure that Hamas no longer can perpetuate such crimes against humanity. Indeed, the very fact that American citizens are being held hostage right now by a terrorist organization hardly registers in the mainstream conversation at all. The president and his handlers are loathe to talk about it, the legacy media are hardly interested in focusing on this problem, and the left wing of the Democratic coalition is pushing in the opposite direction. 

Once more, we also see a difference in the character of the two men. Biden and Antony Blinken, his secretary of state, have been responsive to the demands of the American Left, exhorting Israel in the strongest possible terms to stand down. While Carter has been a notable critic of Israel in his lengthy post-presidency, it is hard to imagine he would show such little regard for American hostages who have been in captivity now for over half a year. 

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The responses of the Carter and Biden administrations to their respective crises also illustrate changes in the makeup of the Democratic Party, especially on matters of foreign affairs. It is inconceivable that in 1979, any major faction in the United States, left, right, or center, would not only accept taking American hostages but actively celebrate the group that did it. Yet that is exactly what is happening throughout campuses across the country, as young leftists chant in support of a global intifada, supported in many instances by faculty members and buttressed in turn by a growing chorus of Democratic politicians whose main demand is not for Americans to be released but for Israel to be restrained. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has shown great political courage in standing on the side of Israel and demanding the release of hostages. But the fact that such a position is courageous is a sign of the shifting attitude of the Left over the last half a century.

Carter has since been remembered among conservatives as an incompetent leftist, but that is only half true. His administration was no doubt marked by domestic and foreign policy failures, but he was his own man — a centrist and pragmatist who came from outside the political establishment. Biden is none of these things, at least not anymore. His tenure in the Senate was often one characterized by independent thinking and moderation, but his presidential tenure belongs to the Left, which, unlike in the late 1970s, is sympathetic to Islamist forces, even at the expense of the freedom of American hostages. 

Jay Cost is the Gerald R. Ford senior nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“I know what Nevada families are going through,” Rosen said. “It’s why I first ran for Congress. And it’s why in the Senate, I’ve worked with both parties to solve problems. And always focused on making a difference in people’s lives.”

It’s clear why Rosen, 66, is placing such an emphasis on independent voters. It’s worked well in her fast-rising mid-life political career, which she pursued after time as a computer programmer and, among other things, volunteering as president of the Congregation Ner Tamid synagogue, a Reform Jewish congregation in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. Rosen won an open House seat in 2016 and, after a single, two-year term, moved to the Senate in the 2018 elections by beating a Republican incumbent.

And Nevada has a famously independent and hard-to-pin-down electorate due to its frequent population churn. Swaths of people move to the Las Vegas area between elections, seeking lower housing costs, job opportunities, and desert sunshine, among other factors. Some stay in what’s still an often boom-and-bust economy based on the service industry, but large numbers of others leave, which forces candidates each election cycle, from statewide to local office, to scramble to identify and persuade likely voters.

A near-top Republican target

Senate Republicans are eyeing the Nevada seat as a key pickup opportunity in their quest to overturn Democrats’ 51-49 majority. Senate Republicans already have one state effectively in the bag, West Virginia, where Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is retiring and is virtually certain to be replaced by a Republican in a state that turned out to be former President Donald Trump‘s second-best showing in 2020, when he beat President Joe Biden there 69% to 30%.

The top two Republican targets are Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jon Tester (D-MT). Knocking them off, plus claiming West Virginia, would provide a healthy 52-48 majority. That’s where the Nevada seat comes in, with Senate Republicans eyeing a pickup opportunity in a state that’s being fiercely contested at the presidential level. In 2020, Biden only beat Trump in Nevada 50.05% to 47.67%. It’s a similar situation in Pennsylvania, where Republicans are bullish on nominee David McCormick’s chances of beating Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), in a kind of undercard race to the fierce presidential fight being waged in the Keystone State.

That explains why Rosen has not always voted in lockstep with her more liberal Democratic Senate colleagues. In May 2023, she was among a small group of Senate Democrats to join Republicans in passing a resolution, 56-43, to overturn a measure passed by the Council of the District of Columbia aimed at police accountability. It would have banned the use of chokeholds, required officers to use de-escalation tactics before the use of force, and provided public access to body camera records. Republicans had seized on the bill as a sign Democrats are “soft on crime” and not doing enough on the matter.

Rosen was also among a group of Senate Democrats who called on the Biden administration to freeze the $6 billion in assets to Iran after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack against Israel.

In her reelection bid, Rosen is leaving little up to chance. Her campaign recently placed a $14 million ad reservation in Nevada. It will run from late July through the November election in the Las Vegas and Reno markets.

Senate Republicans, though, scoff at these moves, arguing the eventual GOP nominee, either retired Army Capt. Sam Brown or wealthy dermatologist and Trump administration U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter, is in a strong position to defeat Rosen.

The National Republican Senate Committee, the campaign arm of the chamber’s GOP lawmakers, is actively linking Rosen to Biden, whose middling approval numbers leave him in a near-dead heat with his vanquished 2020 Republican rival a bit under six months out from this year’s election.

“Jacky Rosen is stuck in the low forties in the polls because she has done absolutely nothing to separate herself from the national Democrat brand,” said Mike Berg, NRSC communications director.

“Voters don’t know anything about her other than that she is a rubber stamp for whatever Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer want,” Berg added, in reference to the Senate Democratic leader from New York, a popular Republican political punching bag.

In the June 11 Republican primary, Brown is the most prominent candidate. He was courted by NRSC Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) to run for the seat. A 2006 West Point graduate who later earned a master’s degree at Southern Methodist University, Brown is an Afghanistan war veteran who sustained burns to 30% of his body due to an improvised explosive device injury in 2008.

A recent Emerson College-Hill poll showed Brown would have some ground to make up against Rosen as the Republican Senate nominee, with the incumbent ahead 45% to 37%.

Still, Brown is looking forward to the general election, challenging Rosen’s bipartisan credentials in a statement to the Washington Examiner.

“Jacky Rosen has championed 98% of Joe Biden’s disastrous policies prioritizing the wants of Washington over the needs of Nevadans,” Brown said. “As a result, housing, grocery, and energy prices are out of control; our border is a war zone with crime and fentanyl flooding our streets; and the education system is excluding parental involvement while simultaneously failing our children.”

Gunter, meanwhile, has the ability to self-fund a campaign against Rosen — if he can get that far. He and Brown are among 12 GOP candidates seeking the nomination, a field that includes former Assemblyman Jim Marchant, a 2020 election denier and the 2022 GOP nominee for secretary of state. 

Gunter has sought to tie Brown to retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and claim the mantle as the top MAGA Republican in the primary.

“Dr. Jeff Gunter is the quintessential MAGA candidate, committed to President Trump’s transformative policies and prepared to invest substantially to secure victory in Nevada,” Gunter spokeswoman Erica Knight said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “With robust grassroots support demonstrated at the recent Nevada GOP convention, Dr. Gunter is uniquely positioned to unseat Senator Jacky Rosen and champion conservative values in the Senate.”

Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the race, most likely due to his ties with Gunter and the NRSC’s backing of Brown.

Rosen support back home

With the fall race coming more into focus, Rosen’s campaign continues to emphasize what it calls her ability to work across the aisle on behalf of her constituents.

“Jacky Rosen has been ranked one of the most bipartisan and effective Senators in the nation because of her proven record of political independence and her work across party lines to deliver for Nevada,” Rosen spokeswoman Johanna Warshaw said. “While extreme MAGA Republicans are busy tearing each other down in a divisive and expensive primary, Senator Rosen is focused on communicating directly to voters about the work she’s doing to fight for Nevadans.”

Vince Saavedra, executive secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions, also touted Rosen’s bipartisanship in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

“She is not an extremist, which we love,” Saavedra said. “Whether it’s far left or far right, she could work across the aisle easily, and that’s why she’s going to have the building trades support.”

Rosen voted with Biden nearly 93% of the time during the 117^th Congress, according to analysis from FiveThirtyEight. In the 118th Congress, she has voted with the president nearly 99% of the time.

In 2023, Rosen was the third-ranked Democratic senator to break ranks with her party, according to CQ Roll Call and the Lugar Center at Georgetown listed her as one of the top 10 bipartisan lawmakers in the Senate in 2022.

The Trump campaign and the GOP are seeking to make the 2024 race focused on inflation increasing the cost of groceries and gas and a rising immigration crisis at the southern border.

In Nevada, the consumer price index for all urban consumers was 3.45% in April, up from 3.1% the previous month but down from 6.5% one year prior. The “Core” CPI Inflation was 3.9% in April, 4.0% the previous month, and down from 5.7% a year prior.

In contrast to the GOP, Rosen and the Biden campaign are seeking to make the election focus on abortion, which has proven to be a potent turnout matter for Democrats.

Organizers in Nevada are working to get an amendment that enshrines abortion rights into the state constitution on the ballot. Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, the group leading the effort, said it had amassed 110,000 signatures, more than the 102,362 required to be on the ballot, in April.

“I think it will have a big impact because this is a family issue,” said Susie Martinez, executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada state AFL-CIO.

“It’s ridiculous that your politician should have anything to do with you and your doctor,” Martinez continued. “It’s just these extremes have just gotten out of hand, and that’s why every time anything comes up with (abortion), it’s a losing battle for the Republicans because women are not going to put up with that, they come out to vote for that.”

Brown and his wife Amy spoke with NBC News in February about the abortion she received before they married, with Brown embracing Nevada law allowing abortion up to 24 weeks and supporting individual states setting abortion standards.

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The NRSC, however, is confident both Trump and Brown can win back the Silver State from Democrats.

“Polls in Nevada have consistently shown President Trump leading Joe Biden in Nevada, and Sam Brown is already neck and neck with Jacky Rosen despite having less name identification,” Berg said. “That is why Cook Political Report recently shifted the race from ‘Lean Democrat’ to ‘Toss-Up.’”