logo
After much demand, U.S. Rep. William Timmons to host telephone town hall

After much demand, U.S. Rep. William Timmons to host telephone town hall

Yahoo29-04-2025
SOUTH CAROLINA, S.C. (WSPA) — U.S. Representative William Timmons (R-SC 4th District) is set to host a telephone town hall on Tuesday night.
The event comes less than one week after the congressman referred to town halls as a product of the South Carolina Democratic Party.'These so-called 'town halls' orchestrated by the SCDP are nothing more than staged political pep rallies for their left-wing agenda,' Timmons said. 'I am focused on delivering President Trump's America First agenda, not performative gatherings.'
Rep. Timmons announced his plans to host a telephone town hall on Monday night, following President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office.
'Looking forward to speaking with you and answering your questions,' Timmons said on social media.
According to Merriam-Webster, a town hall is defined as an event where a 'public official or political candidate addresses an audience by answering questions posed by individual members.'
U.S. Rep. Sheri Biggs hosts virtual town hall
A recent billboard in Greenville claimed the last in-person town hall held by Timmons was more than three years ago.
Greenville City Council At-Large Representative Russell Stall said that while he is not affiliated with the group behind the display; he is concerned.
'Our biggest responsibility and our biggest privilege is listening to the voice of the people,' Stall said. 'I am very concerned that we are not seeing that here.'
The advertisement directed readers to a website that criticizes Timmons' decisions and alleged lack of involvement with his constituents.
On April 22, U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC 6th District) held an in-person town hall at Wofford College.
People travelled from across the region to hear answers they feel they have not gotten from Congressman Timmons, who represents the district. Clyburn even criticized Timmons for not holding an in-person town hall.
The town hall is slated to start at 5:45 p.m. Constituents interested in speaking with Rep. Timmons can sign up online.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Collins jumps into Georgia Senate race
Collins jumps into Georgia Senate race

Yahoo

time6 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Collins jumps into Georgia Senate race

Rep. Mike Collins (R) announced Monday he's jumping into the Georgia Senate race after teasing a potential challenge to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) last week. Collins in his ad touted helping President Trump pass his major policy legislation and his work on the Laken Riley Act, a law that allows federal officials to detain some immigrants without legal status who have been charged with certain crimes like theft and burglary. His ad also plays audio of Trump praising Collins, saying 'Mike Collins. Mike, you were fantastic. He loves this state, and he took this very personally.' 'I don't know who Jon Ossoff really works for, but it sure as heck isn't Georgia,' Collins says in the roughly minutelong video. 'It's time to send a trucker to the U.S. Senate to steamroll the radical left, deliver on President Trump's America First agenda, and put the people of Georgia back in the driver's seat,' concludes Collins, whose family owns a trucking company. Collins is the son of the late Rep. Mac Collins (R-Ga.), who also sought a run for Senate in 2004 but lost in the primary to former Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). Georgia is one of Senate Republicans' best pickup opportunities in 2026, and the race to take on first-term Ossoff is taking shape. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) is also vying for the seat, while former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is eyeing a run. State Insurance Commissioner John King had launched a campaign to take on Ossoff but later dropped out. Meanwhile, influential Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who declined to run for Senate, is getting behind Dooley, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — setting up a potential clash between Kemp and Trump over their preferred picks. The president has not yet signaled who he would endorse, but his backing would prove influential in the primary. While the GOP primary heats up, Ossoff is shoring up his war chest. The incumbent has brought in staggering double-digit hauls over the last several fundraising quarters. Senate Democrats knocked Mike Collins over his Senate announcement, with Maeve Coyle, a spokesperson for the Senate Democrats' campaign arm saying in a statement, 'Mike Collins is an extremist who will have to answer for his vote to spike costs and strip health care from up to 750,000 Georgians.' 'While Collins is entering an already messy and divisive primary where candidates' race to the right will result in a deeply flawed nominee, Senator Ossoff is building a campaign that will allow him to hold this seat in 2026.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Is AI the exception to ‘America First'?
Is AI the exception to ‘America First'?

Politico

time6 hours ago

  • Politico

Is AI the exception to ‘America First'?

With help from Aaron Mak The AI Action Plan that President Donald Trump rolled out last week contained quite an easter egg for globalists. In many ways, the 28-page document was very much in line with Trump's swaggering, chest-puffing attitude toward foreign policy. It took an 'America first' approach that rhetorically paralleled the administration's punishing tariff threats, withdrawal from 'woke' UNESCO and drive-by references to 'the evil of globalism.' But packed into the AI plan's pages — page 20, to be exact — was a pivot: a call to forge 'an enduring global alliance' on the technology. The plan gets pretty specific. It calls for the State and Commerce departments to leverage the U.S. position in international bodies — it names the United Nations, the OECD, G7, G20 and the International Telecommunication Union, among others — to advocate standards and governance approaches that 'reflect American values.' (If you're not familiar, the ITU is a 150-year-old UN agency that sets rules for global telecom and tech infrastructure — and has been the subject of a global power struggle before.) So wait — did AI just carve out its own exception to 'America First'? And what does that mean for America's increasingly fragile relationships with Western allies? European diplomats I called from Germany, France and Brussels declined to comment. Karsten Wildberger, Germany's digital minister, attended the AI Action Plan announcement in Washington and nodded to the sense of alliance in a CNN interview: 'Well, look, Germany and Europe, we are great partners of the U.S. — 75 percent of our cloud services is serviced by great American tech companies, and we value this partnership.' Ronan Murphy, director of the tech policy program at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, told DFD that although he saw the theme of the plan as 'very much America First, AI dominance,' he agreed there was a vibe shift when it comes to how to actually push that agenda. 'The outright acknowledgement that there is a benefit to working with others in this technology is a little bit new, for this administration,' Murphy said. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy did not immediately respond to questions from DFD. One group that has long advocated for the U.S. to take a more robust role in AI on the world stage is the Special Competitive Studies Project, founded in 2021 by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The group submitted its recommendations to the White House ahead of the release of the plan. Joe Wang, vice president of global affairs, said he saw SCSP's ideas reflected in the action plan's third pillar, which reads: 'To succeed in the global AI competition, America must do more than promote AI within its own borders. The United States must also drive adoption of American AI systems, computing hardware, and standards throughout the world.' While there are some calls in the action plan for tracking risks, Wang said the export of the tech stack for AI was paramount: 'If we are not the ones doing that, China will be.' As if on cue, China said Saturday that it planned to launch a new world AI organization, with a focus on the Global South. 'We should strengthen coordination to form a global AI governance framework that has broad consensus as soon as possible,' Premier Li Qiang told the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, according to Channel News Asia. In light of the race with China, any restrictions on American technology could be seen as slowing down Team USA, or the 'enduring global alliance' the AI plan would seek to build. Some of those restrictions still come from American allies — and are still causing arguments. Last week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pledged to use tariff negotiations to whack at digital services taxes that U.S. tech firms complain unfairly target them. 'Donald Trump's got these tech companies back and we're working on it,' Lutnick said. 'You saw, we got rid of it in Canada, we got rid of it in all sorts of countries, they knock it down, that's one of our key objectives.' And House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is on a junket to Brussels and London this week blasting European tech regulations. His work builds on the comments Vice President JD Vance made to the Paris AI Action Summit in February: 'The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety. It will be won by building -- from reliable power plants to the manufacturing facilities that can produce the chips of the future.' Bluster aside, the U.S. just reached a trade deal with the EU that skipped over digital taxes or regulation. Ironically, the drive to beat China may be a moderating force for the America First AI policy machine. Wang, at SCSP, said as Washington and Beijing hustle to build out AI infrastructure across the world, the U.S. offers an advantage. China's earlier 'Belt and Road' initiative left countries saddled with 'predatory' giant projects and expensive maintenance, he said. One recent analysis found China is the largest debt collector in the developing world. China's new AI plan is 'the next generation of how China can leverage a new tech ecosystem to make sure partners remain tied to China in a way that is advantageous to China, not the partner countries,' Wang said. By contrast, he said, 'The partnership we operate is a more cooperative system.' Tesla's robotaxis red light Tesla hit a permitting snag with its plans to debut robotaxis in San Francisco over the weekend, reports POLITICO's California Decoded team. Tesla initially informed staff last week it would launch the robotaxis in the city as soon as that Friday, Business Insider reported. But local officials told the Decoded team that Tesla never applied for the permits to do so — even with safety drivers behind the wheel. The California Public Utilities Commission told Decoded that Tesla notified the agency it would offer the service to families and friends of employees, and certain members of the public. 'If Tesla actually deploys its AVs in San Francisco without permits, these vehicles should be seized and impounded,' Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener told POLITICO. 'We have permitting & safety rules for a reason. Elon Musk isn't exempt from those rules.' The warnings may have worked. Members of the Decoded team report that they didn't see any Tesla robotaxis on San Francisco's streets this weekend. Tesla did not respond to an inquiry from DFD. X to comply with Irish social media law X implemented age verification and parental control measures over the weekend to abide by the terms of Ireland's Online Safety Code, POLITICO's Eliza Gkritsi reports. That law, which went into effect on July 21, requires sites hosting adult content to implement practices to protect minors. Ireland's media regulation agency, Coimisiún na Meán, said last Wednesday that X had not taken any actions to comply with the code, and requested that the company provide information about its plans to do so. Coimisiún na Meán told POLITICO on Monday that X had implemented the measures for minors, but Irish regulators said they are still determining whether those steps are sufficient. The company is currently challenging the Online Safety Code in Irish courts. post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@

Trump ally Mike Collins launch key battleground state bid to flip Democrat-held Senate seat
Trump ally Mike Collins launch key battleground state bid to flip Democrat-held Senate seat

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Trump ally Mike Collins launch key battleground state bid to flip Democrat-held Senate seat

Republican Rep. Mike Collins on Monday announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, in a crucial race for the GOP as the party aims to expand its Senate majority in next year's midterm elections. Collins is aiming to challenge Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election in the key southeastern battleground state that President Donald Trump narrowly carried in last year's election. And Republicans view Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat incumbent on the ballot in 2026. "Jon Ossoff does not represent Georgia's values and has attacked our state's best interests at every opportunity. He's voted to raise taxes on Georgia families, supercharge inflation, open our Southern Border, and allow men to play women's sports," Collins argued in a statement as he launched his campaign. Collins highlighted that "this is Georgia's moment. This is the people's time to take back control of this Senate seat, deliver on President Trump's America First agenda, and kick Jon Ossoff to the curb—and together, that's exactly what we will do next November." First On Fox: Trump Ally To Launch Senate Campaign In Key Battleground The announcement by Collins came as no surprise. Fox News Digital learned on Friday that the congressman would launch his Senate campaign early this week. Read On The Fox News App Collins, a businessman who founded a trucking company, is in his second term representing Georgia's 10th Congressional District, which includes a large swath of urban, suburban, and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta. The conservative lawmaker, who's the son of the late Republican Rep. Mac Collins of Georgia, has been moving closer to launching a Senate campaign for weeks. Trump Team 'Pissed Off' With Republican Governor In Key Battleground State Senate Nomination Race "Tires kicked. Fueling up," Collis wrote Monday in a social media post that was accompanied by a video where he showcased his ties to President Donald Trump. "Congressman Mike Collins, he loves this state," Trump said in a clip in the video. And Collins' launch video, which he posted on social media on Monday morning, also includes a clip of the president praising the congressman, as well as visuals of Collins and Trump standing together. Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey took aim at Collins, charging he "is a MAGA extremist who wants to raise the retirement age, voted against full Social Security benefits for first responders, propped up dangerous antisemetic rhetoric, and supports a federal abortion ban with no exceptions." Bailey added in a statement that "this already messy primary will expose just how out of step Collins is with Georgia voters as Republicans duke it out to prove who is more in line with Trump's toxic agenda, deep Medicaid cuts, and economic chaos." Collins was an early backer of the president, supporting him as Trump first ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 cycle. In the 2024 presidential campaign, when Trump won back the White House, Collins traveled on behalf of Trump to the crucial early-voting primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. He also appeared at multiple Trump rallies during the 2024 cycle and opened three Trump campaign offices in Georgia. Popular Gop Governor Passes On Senate Bid In 2026 And Collins, not facing a difficult re-election in his solidly red House seat, campaigned in ten congressional districts across the country to help elect Trump-aligned candidates as the GOP defended its razor-thin majority in the chamber. Collins at the beginning of this year reintroduced the Laken Riley Act, which mandates that undocumented immigrants charged with burglary or theft be detained. It's named after a Georgia nursing student killed by a man who had illegally entered the U.S. The case grabbed national attention. The bill, which quickly passed the Republican-controlled House and Senate, became the first legislation signed into law by Trump as he started his second tour of duty in the White House. A Republican source said that Collins has a "great relationship" with the president and his political team. And a Georgia-based Republican consultant told Fox News that "the lane that Mike is going to run in is the America First fighter who's been with President Trump." Trump, who is the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics and whose endorsements in Republican primaries are extremely powerful, has yet to weigh in on whom he may back in Georgia's burgeoning Senate race. National Republicans were hoping to recruit popular two-term GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to take on Ossoff. But Kemp, who is term-limited, announced earlier this year that he would pass on a 2026 Senate run. Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, who for a decade has represented a district in coastal Georgia, launched a Senate campaign in the spring. Carter is also courting a Trump endorsement in the GOP primary. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King was also running for the Republican nomination, but ended his bid on Thursday. Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, who is the son of former longtime University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, is also considering a Senate bid. The younger Dooley is close with Kemp, who's a longtime friend. Sources in Trump's political orbit and Republican sources in Georgia confirmed to Fox News on Friday that there was an agreement between the president's political operation and Kemp's political team that they would work together to find a candidate that they could all unify behind to take on Ossoff in the Senate race. Those sources also confirmed that Kemp and Trump met a couple of weeks ago to discuss the Senate race in Georgia. But when the governor floated Dooley's name, a source close to the president's political team said "they were told to stand down." And when Kemp and his team did move forward with Dooley, it upset Trump's advisers, who, according to sources, were "already pretty annoyed" that Kemp had passed earlier this year on taking on Ossoff in the Senate race. "We had a deal to work together," a top political source in the Trump orbit told Fox News on Friday. "Kemp went out on his own – which has frustrated and pissed off Trump orbit." But a source close to the governor told Fox News that it's factually not true that they were told to stand down on Dooley. And the source added that Kemp meant what he said that he wants to work with the president and his team and remains that way. A campaign announcement by Dooley could come as early as this article source: Trump ally Mike Collins launch key battleground state bid to flip Democrat-held Senate seat

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store