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Pelosi going to Armenia amid renewed clashes with Azerbaijan

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will travel to Armenia this weekend in a show of support for the country, which has been locked in a deadly fight with Azerbaijan. It will be the speaker’s latest dramatic foreign trip following her contentious arrival in Taiwan last month. With the midterms approaching — and the possibility that she will lose the gavel if Republicans return to the majority — the belief in Washington is that Pelosi wants to cement her legacy as a champion of human rights, not only in the United States but around the world.

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi will travel to Armenia this weekend in a show of support for the country, which has been locked in a deadly fight with Azerbaijan. It will be the speaker’s latest dramatic foreign trip following her contentious arrival in Taiwan last month. With the midterms approaching — and the possibility that she will lose the gavel if Republicans return to the majority — the belief in Washington is that Pelosi wants to cement her legacy as a champion of human rights, not only in the United States but around the world.

A day on the campaign trail with Tim Ryan features the voices of different voters

There was still dew on the grass — and the Toledo city skyline in clear view — as Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Ryan went on a morning tour of Tatum Park’s urban farm.

This was the first of three stops Ryan had planned for a busy Monday on the campaign trail.

During the tour, Sonia Flunder-McNair, the farm’s founder, welcomed the opportunity to tell Ryan about the government red tape that stands in the way of urban farmers.

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There was still dew on the grass — and the Toledo city skyline in clear view — as Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Ryan went on a morning tour of Tatum Park’s urban farm.

This was the first of three stops Ryan had planned for a busy Monday on the campaign trail.

During the tour, Sonia Flunder-McNair, the farm’s founder, welcomed the opportunity to tell Ryan about the government red tape that stands in the way of urban farmers.

Opinion | Rethinking Joe Manchin

Joe Manchin has spent much of the past year as the villain of liberal America, receiving the kind of criticism that’s usually reserved for Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, or a conservative Supreme Court justice. Now that Joe Manchin has saved the Democratic agenda, how should liberals think about him?

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Joe Manchin has spent much of the past year as the villain of liberal America, receiving the kind of criticism that’s usually reserved for Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, or a conservative Supreme Court justice. Now that Joe Manchin has saved the Democratic agenda, how should liberals think about him?

Peter DeFazio ends Oregon record 36 years in U.S. House.

When Peter DeFazio retires after an Oregon record for U.S. House service, he will have achieved one policy goal — but a second eluded him — during his 36 years representing southwest Oregon’s 4th District.

As chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he secured congressional approval of a $1 trillion-plus spending plan for public works that President Joe Biden signed last year — although the evenly split Senate ended up dictating its details.

“We’re going to have the biggest investment,” DeFazio said. “It’s not going to be as progressive or as climate-friendly as I wanted. But it’s my bill and my number (HR 3684), with a Senate shell underneath.”

But the Democrat from Springfield, who represents what was once the nation’s largest timber-cutting district, failed to resolve the decades-old conflict between industry advocates for logging and environmental advocates for the protection of forests.

“I once wrote that forestry issues are a lot like religion,” DeFazio said. “And they’re about as easy to resolve.”

DeFazio made these and other observations on June 2 during a wide-ranging conversation sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society.

DeFazio turned 75 in May. He announced back on Dec. 1 that he would not seek re-election after an Oregon record 18 terms in the U.S. House. (The overall record holder for Oregon service in Congress is Ron Wyden, a Democrat who was in the House 15 years until he was elected to the Senate in 1996. Wyden is seeking a fifth full term on Nov. 8.)

DeFazio lost to Wyden in the Democratic primary for the Senate. He weighed bids for governor but decided against running in 2002 and 2010 when there was no incumbent. As an elected official outside Portland, he has drawn less public attention in Oregon despite his long tenure in Congress.

DeFazio said he has noticed a political imbalance that gives the metro area even more weight than its already largest share of Oregon’s population.

“Coming from downstate, we are too Portland-centric, and that has driven wedges in our state,” he said. “I’m not quite sure how we are going to heal that. But I hope there is someone who can heal that and bring us back together.”

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When Peter DeFazio retires after an Oregon record for U.S. House service, he will have achieved one policy goal — but a second eluded him — during his 36 years representing southwest Oregon’s 4th District.

As chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he secured congressional approval of a $1 trillion-plus spending plan for public works that President Joe Biden signed last year — although the evenly split Senate ended up dictating its details.

“We’re going to have the biggest investment,” DeFazio said. “It’s not going to be as progressive or as climate-friendly as I wanted. But it’s my bill and my number (HR 3684), with a Senate shell underneath.”

But the Democrat from Springfield, who represents what was once the nation’s largest timber-cutting district, failed to resolve the decades-old conflict between industry advocates for logging and environmental advocates for the protection of forests.

“I once wrote that forestry issues are a lot like religion,” DeFazio said. “And they’re about as easy to resolve.”

DeFazio made these and other observations on June 2 during a wide-ranging conversation sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society.

DeFazio turned 75 in May. He announced back on Dec. 1 that he would not seek re-election after an Oregon record 18 terms in the U.S. House. (The overall record holder for Oregon service in Congress is Ron Wyden, a Democrat who was in the House 15 years until he was elected to the Senate in 1996. Wyden is seeking a fifth full term on Nov. 8.)

DeFazio lost to Wyden in the Democratic primary for the Senate. He weighed bids for governor but decided against running in 2002 and 2010 when there was no incumbent. As an elected official outside Portland, he has drawn less public attention in Oregon despite his long tenure in Congress.

DeFazio said he has noticed a political imbalance that gives the metro area even more weight than its already largest share of Oregon’s population.

“Coming from downstate, we are too Portland-centric, and that has driven wedges in our state,” he said. “I’m not quite sure how we are going to heal that. But I hope there is someone who can heal that and bring us back together.”

‘Defund the police’ is not the policy of the Democratic Party, Pelosi says

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the idea of defunding the police, a frequently used slogan during the 2020 elections, is not the direction that the Democratic Party is headed.

“Make no mistake, community safety is our responsibility,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I quote one of my colleagues from New York, Ritchie Torres, a brand new member of Congress way on the left, saying that ‘defund the police’ is dead. That causes a concern with a few in our caucus. But public safety is our responsibility.”

Host George Stephanopoulos noted that rising crime was a major concern of Americans these days and cited divisions within the party on law enforcement, referring to Missouri Rep. Cori Bush as someone backing the idea of defunding the police.

“That’s not the position of the Democratic Party, with all due respect to Cori Bush,” Pelosi said. “Community safety to protect and defend in every way is our oath of office.”

Citing California Rep. Karen Bass (who is running mayor for Los Angeles) and New York Mayor Eric Adams as positive examples, Pelosi said Democrats are looking to improve policing by reducing “mistreatment” of people. Among the priorities that have been frequently mentioned is an end to no-knock warrants, such as the one that led to the fatal shooting of Amir Locke in Minneapolis on Feb. 2.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the idea of defunding the police, a frequently used slogan during the 2020 elections, is not the direction that the Democratic Party is headed.

“Make no mistake, community safety is our responsibility,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I quote one of my colleagues from New York, Ritchie Torres, a brand new member of Congress way on the left, saying that ‘defund the police’ is dead. That causes a concern with a few in our caucus. But public safety is our responsibility.”

Host George Stephanopoulos noted that rising crime was a major concern of Americans these days and cited divisions within the party on law enforcement, referring to Missouri Rep. Cori Bush as someone backing the idea of defunding the police.

“That’s not the position of the Democratic Party, with all due respect to Cori Bush,” Pelosi said. “Community safety to protect and defend in every way is our oath of office.”

Citing California Rep. Karen Bass (who is running mayor for Los Angeles) and New York Mayor Eric Adams as positive examples, Pelosi said Democrats are looking to improve policing by reducing “mistreatment” of people. Among the priorities that have been frequently mentioned is an end to no-knock warrants, such as the one that led to the fatal shooting of Amir Locke in Minneapolis on Feb. 2.

Tim Ryan’s plea to Ohio’s White working class: Trust Democrats again

Congressman Tim Ryan has been traveling the foothills of western Appalachia with a joke about marriage he hopes will make him Ohio’s next U.S. senator.

The voters he needs to turn his way — the forgotten, the struggling, in communities with hollow factories, Trump flags and fentanyl epidemics — don’t agree with everything he stands for as a Democrat. But then, he asks his small crowds, who does?

“If my wife and I have 10 conversations in one day and we agree on six or seven of them, we crack a bottle of wine and celebrate how great our marriage is,” he said at a recent stop here along the Ohio River, just a few blocks from an empty brownfield where furnaces once burned. “So why would you think you are going to agree with someone 100 percent of the time?”

Ryan’s bet — and the national Democratic dream — is that a few issues still just might matter more than his party label. He lists three whenever he speaks, after talking up his small-town upbringing and all of his union relatives who once worked at steel plants or auto suppliers: rebuilding the country with major public works spending, new government investing in manufacturing industries and beating China.

“They have a 10-year plan, a 50-year plan, a 100-year plan,” he said of the Asian superpower. “We are living in a 24-hour news cycle talking about really dumb stuff, like Big Bird and Dr. Seuss.”

The pitch has made Ryan one of the most consequential Democratic candidates of the 2022 cycle, a test case on whether his party has any hope of reclaiming its erstwhileWhite working-class voting base, as former president Donald Trump, who sped their flight, waits in the wings. The struggle is, by any measure, uphill — Democrats have just one statewide win in the former swing state since 2012 — and Republicans remain favored to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R) in November.

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Congressman Tim Ryan has been traveling the foothills of western Appalachia with a joke about marriage he hopes will make him Ohio’s next U.S. senator.

The voters he needs to turn his way — the forgotten, the struggling, in communities with hollow factories, Trump flags and fentanyl epidemics — don’t agree with everything he stands for as a Democrat. But then, he asks his small crowds, who does?

“If my wife and I have 10 conversations in one day and we agree on six or seven of them, we crack a bottle of wine and celebrate how great our marriage is,” he said at a recent stop here along the Ohio River, just a few blocks from an empty brownfield where furnaces once burned. “So why would you think you are going to agree with someone 100 percent of the time?”

Ryan’s bet — and the national Democratic dream — is that a few issues still just might matter more than his party label. He lists three whenever he speaks, after talking up his small-town upbringing and all of his union relatives who once worked at steel plants or auto suppliers: rebuilding the country with major public works spending, new government investing in manufacturing industries and beating China.

“They have a 10-year plan, a 50-year plan, a 100-year plan,” he said of the Asian superpower. “We are living in a 24-hour news cycle talking about really dumb stuff, like Big Bird and Dr. Seuss.”

The pitch has made Ryan one of the most consequential Democratic candidates of the 2022 cycle, a test case on whether his party has any hope of reclaiming its erstwhileWhite working-class voting base, as former president Donald Trump, who sped their flight, waits in the wings. The struggle is, by any measure, uphill — Democrats have just one statewide win in the former swing state since 2012 — and Republicans remain favored to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R) in November.

Fauci fires back at Rand Paul, accusing him of using attacks for ‘political gain’

Anthony S. Fauci accused Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday of raising campaign funds off false attacks on him that have encouraged threats on Fauci’s life.

Throughout the pandemic, Paul (R-Ky.) and other conservatives have questioned the science behind vaccines, masks and other public health measures and spun conspiracy claims about Fauci having a role in the creation of the coronavirus. The attacks on Fauci, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser on the coronavirus and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have grown increasingly hostile in recent months, and Fauci has been under stepped-up security protection since 2020.

On Tuesday, Fauci demanded to speak uninterrupted after Paul accused him in a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing of helping orchestrate a smear campaign against three conservative academics who opposed shutdown measures in 2020. But the emails Paul pointed to showed Fauci merely sending colleagues a link to a Wired article debunking claims about reaching “herd immunity.”

Fauci called Paul’s repeated attacks a distortion of reality and blamed such falsehoods for spurring threats on his life. He cited the arrest of a California man in Iowa last month who police said was traveling to Washington with an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines of ammunition. The man allegedly had a “hit list” including Fauci and several others, mostly Democratic politicians.

“What happens when [Paul] gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue,” Fauci said, “is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there, and I have … threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me.”

Fauci went on to say that some have gone beyond mere harassment. “As some of you may know, just about three or four weeks ago on December 21st, a person was arrested who was on their way from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., at a speed stop in Iowa,” Fauci said. “And they asked, the police asked him where he was going, and he was going to Washington, D.C., to kill Dr. Fauci.”

A federal complaint says that Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, was arrested in Iowa with an AR-15 and multiple magazines of ammunition in his car. When questioned, the complaint says, Xiong said he intended to kill Fauci, former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and potentially Biden. The complaint against Xiong does not mention Paul. An attorney for Xiong has indicated in court that he plans to use an insanity defense.

Meanwhile, on Paul’s website, the anti-Fauci falsehoods have been put to work as a fundraising strategy, Fauci said at the Senate hearing Tuesday.

He noted that the senator’s website says “Fire Dr. Fauci” and includes “a little box that says contribute here.”

“You can do $5, $10, $20, $100,” Fauci said. “So you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain.”

Paul rejected the criticism, saying it was “disappointing for you to suggest that people who dare to question you are responsible somehow for violent threats.” Afterward, Paul’s campaign sent out a mass fundraising email (subject line: “Fauci is hysterical”) and shared more than a dozen tweets and videos of their clash.

Paul and others have falsely claimed Fauci is part of a conspiracy that led to the creation of the coronavirus in a Chinese lab. In recent months, Fauci’s office has been swamped by viral claims of misinformation and he and family members have faced harassment and security concerns. A Fox Nation host who was a guest on Fox News recently compared Fauci to a Nazi doctor known as the “angel of death.” Right-wing personalities routinely call for his ouster while hashtags such as #FireFauci and #FauciKillsPuppies trend on social media.

Paul said in a statement after the hearing that he was one of the lawmakers at the baseball practice in which Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and others were shot in 2017. Reports showed the shooter was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “I never once accused Senator Sanders of being responsible for the attack and I resent Fauci avoiding the question by ginning up the idea that his opponents are the cause of threats,” Paul said.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) spoke out in support of Fauci and the other scientists from the Biden administration testifying Tuesday, without criticizing Paul by name, in an otherwise heavily partisan hearing.

“I’m sure you who are testifying here today recognize that some of what we do is performing and some of what we do is to become informed. AndI do both from time to time. So I’m not just in one camp or the other in that regard,” Romney said. “But I do want to point out how much I personally — and I believe the great majority of the people in our country — respect you individually and professionally for the work that you do. You are scientists, not politicians. Nevertheless, you are being made subject to the political whims of various political individuals. And that comes at a high cost, which unfortunately, I fear will lead some to not want to participate in helping our government.”

After the hearing, Health and Human Services Department spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement that it was “disappointing and frankly unacceptable that Republican senators chose to spend a hearing with the country’s leading public health experts spreading conspiracy theories and lies about Dr. Fauci, rather than how we protect people from COVID-19.”

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Anthony S. Fauci accused Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday of raising campaign funds off false attacks on him that have encouraged threats on Fauci’s life.

Throughout the pandemic, Paul (R-Ky.) and other conservatives have questioned the science behind vaccines, masks and other public health measures and spun conspiracy claims about Fauci having a role in the creation of the coronavirus. The attacks on Fauci, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser on the coronavirus and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have grown increasingly hostile in recent months, and Fauci has been under stepped-up security protection since 2020.

On Tuesday, Fauci demanded to speak uninterrupted after Paul accused him in a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing of helping orchestrate a smear campaign against three conservative academics who opposed shutdown measures in 2020. But the emails Paul pointed to showed Fauci merely sending colleagues a link to a Wired article debunking claims about reaching “herd immunity.”

Fauci called Paul’s repeated attacks a distortion of reality and blamed such falsehoods for spurring threats on his life. He cited the arrest of a California man in Iowa last month who police said was traveling to Washington with an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines of ammunition. The man allegedly had a “hit list” including Fauci and several others, mostly Democratic politicians.

“What happens when [Paul] gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue,” Fauci said, “is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there, and I have … threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me.”

Fauci went on to say that some have gone beyond mere harassment. “As some of you may know, just about three or four weeks ago on December 21st, a person was arrested who was on their way from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., at a speed stop in Iowa,” Fauci said. “And they asked, the police asked him where he was going, and he was going to Washington, D.C., to kill Dr. Fauci.”

A federal complaint says that Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, was arrested in Iowa with an AR-15 and multiple magazines of ammunition in his car. When questioned, the complaint says, Xiong said he intended to kill Fauci, former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and potentially Biden. The complaint against Xiong does not mention Paul. An attorney for Xiong has indicated in court that he plans to use an insanity defense.

Meanwhile, on Paul’s website, the anti-Fauci falsehoods have been put to work as a fundraising strategy, Fauci said at the Senate hearing Tuesday.

He noted that the senator’s website says “Fire Dr. Fauci” and includes “a little box that says contribute here.”

“You can do $5, $10, $20, $100,” Fauci said. “So you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain.”

Paul rejected the criticism, saying it was “disappointing for you to suggest that people who dare to question you are responsible somehow for violent threats.” Afterward, Paul’s campaign sent out a mass fundraising email (subject line: “Fauci is hysterical”) and shared more than a dozen tweets and videos of their clash.

Paul and others have falsely claimed Fauci is part of a conspiracy that led to the creation of the coronavirus in a Chinese lab. In recent months, Fauci’s office has been swamped by viral claims of misinformation and he and family members have faced harassment and security concerns. A Fox Nation host who was a guest on Fox News recently compared Fauci to a Nazi doctor known as the “angel of death.” Right-wing personalities routinely call for his ouster while hashtags such as #FireFauci and #FauciKillsPuppies trend on social media.

Paul said in a statement after the hearing that he was one of the lawmakers at the baseball practice in which Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and others were shot in 2017. Reports showed the shooter was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “I never once accused Senator Sanders of being responsible for the attack and I resent Fauci avoiding the question by ginning up the idea that his opponents are the cause of threats,” Paul said.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) spoke out in support of Fauci and the other scientists from the Biden administration testifying Tuesday, without criticizing Paul by name, in an otherwise heavily partisan hearing.

“I’m sure you who are testifying here today recognize that some of what we do is performing and some of what we do is to become informed. AndI do both from time to time. So I’m not just in one camp or the other in that regard,” Romney said. “But I do want to point out how much I personally — and I believe the great majority of the people in our country — respect you individually and professionally for the work that you do. You are scientists, not politicians. Nevertheless, you are being made subject to the political whims of various political individuals. And that comes at a high cost, which unfortunately, I fear will lead some to not want to participate in helping our government.”

After the hearing, Health and Human Services Department spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement that it was “disappointing and frankly unacceptable that Republican senators chose to spend a hearing with the country’s leading public health experts spreading conspiracy theories and lies about Dr. Fauci, rather than how we protect people from COVID-19.”