‘Truly chilling': Lawmaker on Minnesota shooting suspect's list speaks out
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democratic socialist in Maryland legislature ready to ‘fight like hell,' says party moving in his direction
BALTIMORE — As self-described 'Democratic socialist' candidates are seeing greater success in races around the country, one Maryland lawmaker who embraces the label believes Democratic Party voters are shifting in his direction. Del. Gabe Acevero, a 34-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, represents Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly. He was first elected in 2018 — long before Zohran Mamdani and Omar Fateh gained national attention for winning the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and an endorsement from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minneapolis' mayoral race, respectively. As the electorate becomes younger and more progressive, Acevero said that establishment Democrats should 'be cognizant' of what that constituency wants if it plans to win elections. 'If you look at where our base, where our constituency and where America is trending, we have to focus on working-class issues — from housing to socioeconomic, gender, environmental, justice — and we can't just continue to provide lip service as a party,' he said. 'We have to fight like hell, not just for the policies, but for workers and the working class. And that's what I've been committed to in the legislature and will continue to do so.' Del. Matt Morgan, a Republican from St. Mary's County, said he knows Acevero well and considers him 'a nice guy.' He said it's 'undeniable' that the Democratic Party is shifting in Acevero's direction. And, in fact, 'it's already there,' Morgan said. He thinks the push into socialism is ultimately a losing proposition for Maryland voters. 'Socialism has a 100% failure rate. The more it's implemented in Maryland, the more people are going to leave,' Morgan said. Recent elections in New York and Minnesota are perhaps indications that the word 'socialism' does not carry the same negative connotation among voters today — especially among Generation Z and younger millennials born after the Cold War, according to Flavio Hickel, an associate professor of political science at Washington College. These voters, and others who increasingly identify as 'working class,' believe Democrats 'need to offer a more ambitious, aggressive, and left-leaning' policy vision, Hickel told The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday. 'I don't think mainstream Democrats would regard what [Acevero] said as probably all that offensive or problematic,' Hickel said. 'They just might differ in sort of, the tactics — how far, how quick and how aggressively do we pursue progressive change?' A staff member for the Maryland Democratic Party did not immediately respond to The Sun's request for comment on Acevero's claims that Democrats are moving in his direction. What a Democratic socialist wants in Maryland Acevero's campaign platform has often leaned progressive: police and criminal justice reform, a $15-per-hour minimum wage, single-payer Medicare For All, universal basic income, higher taxes for the wealthy, and support for kids aging out of the foster care system. 'I think, at the time, a lot of people were trying to, essentially, discourage Democratic voters in District 39 from voting for me, because [they thought], 'these are like radical socialist policies,'' said Acevero. 'In actuality, what they are are popular policies that working people in our state want to see enacted, and so we ran a — similar to Zohran [Mamdani] — a people-powered campaign.' Like Mamdani, Acevero has been vocal in his support of Palestinians in the Gaza war against Israel during his time in the state legislature. In 2025, he introduced the Not On Our Dime Act, which would have required the Maryland Secretary of State to remove nonprofit organizations from the state's Registry of Charitable Solicitation if they knowingly engage in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity. That bill was heard in the House Judiciary Committee, but not debated on the floor. Acevero also sponsored a joint resolution in 2024 that would have conveyed to Maryland's congressional delegation that the General Assembly supports a long-term ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. The joint resolution was heard in the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, but did not advance further. 'I've been very unapologetic' Acevero told The Sun that Democrats 'weren't particularly fond of' him because, prior to his election in 2018, he was an activist with a penchant for holding politicians in both parties accountable. 'I wasn't the darling of the establishment, and I certainly wasn't embraced by the establishment Democrats in District 39,' he said. 'I unseated a two-term incumbent, and I ran on a working-class, progressive agenda that some folks tried to weaponize … using the whole 'Red Scare Socialism' scare tactic.' Acevero alleges establishment figures later hand-picked a candidate to beat him in the 2022 primary, calling his policies 'pie in the sky' or 'radical.' Still, he won. Though he's rounding out his second term, Acevero still isn't necessarily 'embraced' by other Democrats in the General Assembly. Often when he participates in floor debates, he is jeered and his comments — occasionally incendiary — are often called into question. In 2021, he offered amendments to a package of major police reform bills because he felt the settled policy didn't go far enough. Acevero voted against the Democratic redistricting plan later that year because he says he doesn't believe in gerrymandering. He's publicly critical of criminal justice bills that establish mandatory minimum sentences, of which he said: 'Time and again, civil rights organizations have pointed out … it ties judges' hands, but it also disproportionately impacts, you know, Black and Latino people.' 'I've been very unapologetic about the policies that I advocate for and who I am, because I think it's important,' he said, adding that efforts to 'delegitimize Democratic Socialists and their policies [have] never worked.' -----------------
CNN
21 minutes ago
- CNN
Mamdani names a new campaign manager as part of staff expansion
Zohran Mamdani is naming a new campaign manager and hiring additional staff, CNN has learned, as the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor aims both to consolidate support heading into the November general election and to begin planning a potential administration. Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani's chief of staff in the state assembly and the manager of his primary campaign, will become chief adviser, people familiar with campaign operations told CNN. Her new role reflects Mamdani's desire to begin long-term planning – not technically transition work, since he has to win in November first – and thinking through the implementation of his sweeping ideas. She will be succeeded as campaign manager by Maya Handa, who ran the mayoral primary campaign of state senator Zellnor Myrie. Handa has worked for notable local and national progressive figures including former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the locally powerful Working Families Party. Bisgaard-Church, in a statement, told CNN she's 'incredibly proud of the historic campaign we ran in the primary. While our focus now is singularly to ensure Zohran is elected as the next mayor of New York City, I'm excited to take on this new role and continue building toward the future.' Mamdani, who was largely unknown before his primary campaign took off, has held conversations with elected and community leaders whose support he is trying to win, lining up endorsements even as top New York Democrats have declined to back him. His campaign is absorbing supporters and top aides from his former rivals, part of his efforts to unite different camps of progressives and mainstream Democrats. Handa will be joined by Afua Atta-Mensah as political director and Deandra Khan as director of labor and intergovernmental affairs. Atta-Mensah is taking a leave from her position at the group Community Change. Khan was an adviser to the president of 32BJ SEIU, a union of mainly building workers that backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, arguing he was the leader the city needed to deliver for working people in the city. The union has since endorsed Mamdani. A 33-year-old who has never run a staff larger than his state assembly office, Mamdani is hoping to become the chief executive of a city of 8 million people with a nearly $116 billion annual budget and over 300,000 employees. He'll be hoping to do that while radically reworking city operations, from launching government-run grocery stores to trying to make buses free, all while managing complications like union contracts and the massive police force. The staff expansion comes while the candidate himself has been in Uganda for most of the last half of July for another celebration of his wedding. Mamdani this week also expanded his press and communications staff and shifted aides who were in top roles for the primary campaign to other spots internally. Mamdani aides argue this is part of the natural growth and maturation as the campaign moves to a bigger stage, pointing out that no one has left, only more people have joined. In something of a shift since his shocker primary victory, Mamdani himself has adapted his own approach since the primary win, with more of his public time spent standing behind a lectern at set events, while Cuomo, who is staying in the race as an independent, has taken to making low-cost videos out on the streets in the hopes of breaking back through. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, also running as an independent, has spent much of his time mocking both.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is Trump in the Epstein files? Before Bondi's reported alert, here is where he appeared
Fallout over Jeffrey Epstein has been propelled by reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that he was mentioned in the criminal case files. The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported on July 23 that anonymous sources said Bondi told Trump his name appeared multiple times, along with other figures, in the government's files on the late financier indicted on sex trafficking charges. (Being named in the files does not mean he engaged in criminal activity, and a White House official denied wrongdoing, USA TODAY previously reported.) Bondi's Justice Department on July 7 released a memo saying no further disclosure of the documents was needed after teasing a "truckload" of Epstein files in March. In a rare moment of discord among Trump's supporters, many Republicans have pushed for more transparency around the files. 'The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep," White House Communications Director Steven Cheung previously said. "This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about." But criminal investigations into Epstein spanned nearly 15 years, and Trump had already appeared in some evidence that has been made public. Here is what to know: See the list: Which MAGA supporters is Trump calling 'weaklings' over Epstein files? Is Donald Trump's name in the Epstein files? Trump had already appeared in legal documents concerning Epstein's crimes, but never in a way that implicates him. In the 1990s, Trump rode on aircraft owned by Epstein, according to flight logs released in two lawsuits. But that was 30-plus years ago. In Palm Beach County state attorney documents, an image of a message pad communication seized in a Palm Beach police search appeared, but there is nothing more than Trump's name and a phone number. Florida court has rejected the administration's call to unseal documents A federal judge in Florida on July 23 denied the Department of Justice's move to unseal grand jury transcripts from a federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein as part of the first criminal case against him. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, formerly a circuit court judge in Palm Beach County, said in a memo on July 23 that her "hands were tied" and that the DOJ hadn't shown sufficient evidence to release transcripts related to a federal investigation of Epstein in the 2000s. The material sought in Rosenberg's court involved a 2006-08 federal investigation of Epstein that never resulted in an indictment. Part of the infamous "deal of the century," in which Epstein pleaded guilty to two state-court, prostitution-related charges, said that if Epstein followed the agreement that the federal charges would be dropped. Two other requests for related grand jury testimony are still pending in a Manhattan federal court. When was Epstein caught and first charged? A police investigation into Epstein began in March 2005 after a woman from the Palm Beach area in Florida said her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been molested by a wealthy man. In July 2006, Epstein was indicted by a state grand jury on a felony charge of soliciting prostitution, which did not address the 14-year-old victim's age. He was arrested and spent one night in Palm Beach County jail, released the next day on $3,000 bond. Epstein signed a non-prosecution agreement that was called the "deal of the century." He pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, where he was allowed work leave privileges six days a week/12 hours a day over the 13 months he served. When he was released from jail, he spent a year on house arrest but was allowed to travel anywhere so long as he returned in 24 hours. What was Epstein convicted of? Epstein never sat for trial, but he pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution in 2008 in Florida. He was also a registered sex offender. He died in 2019, before he could be tried for sex trafficking charges in New York. He was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell, and the medical examiner ruled it a suicide. Trump himself has cast doubt on Epstein's death. Contributing: Joey Garrison and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@ Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Trump in the Epstein files? What we knew before Bondi told Trump Solve the daily Crossword
