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7 Things: Durant says he won’t vote in the Senate runoff, Britt refuses to debate Brooks and more …

7. Plan to move Space Command supported by GAO report

  • A new report from the Government Accountability Office shows that the decision to move U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville “was consistent with the Air Force’s analysis.” This report has reaffirmed the decision to move the headquarters.
  • U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) said he was “pleased” with the news and agreed “that Huntsville was the right pick for the job.” State Senator Tom Butler (R-Madison) stated, “Huntsville is not only the best option to support the Command and our national security but an area for more growth in the future.”

6. Gas stimulus checks being proposed

  • As a response to increasing gas prices, some lawmakers from North Carolina are proposing a statewide stimulus check for drivers. The checks would be in the amount of $200 and go to anyone with a license and 18-years or older.
  • The national average for a gallon of gas has gone from $3.04 last year to $4.71 most recently. If North Carolina were to move forward with the legislation, checks wouldn’t be sent out until October.

5. Tuberville: Inflation must be dealt with

  • U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is keeping the spotlight on inflation as he said during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing that the current situation was “unsustainable” and “skyrocketing.” Tuberville specifically focused on Alabama, saying, “[I]nflation has caused prices in Alabama to increase over 10%.”
  • Tuberville added, “Now as we seek to begin farm bill discussions in the coming months, it seems that the Biden administration is only focused two areas of the comprehensive package; nutrition and conservation. While these farm bill titles are important, so are the traditional farm programs like crop insurance, farm commodity programs that help our producers safely manage risk.”

4. Biden gonna Biden

  • In a speech to the nation, President Joe Biden laid out his plan for dealing with gun issues moving forward. Sloganeering was on point with the message that “enough is enough,” but the meat of his proposals seem to be lacking. What he did suggest seems marginally effective or unworkable, assault weapons bans, high capacity magazine bans, raising the age for firearms to 21, red flag laws, repealing immunity from gun manufacturers and the vaunted “address the mental health crisis” issue. Outside of red flag laws, support is elusive.
  • Unmentioned in his speech was any mention of school security, something almost no one doesn’t want more of. His attacks on Republicans, akin to the media and their Democrats’ attacks, that they seem to be OK with people being killed and don’t care about dead kids unless they give him what he wants seem unhelpful.

3. There will be a House hearing for a weapons ban

  • A hearing has been announced in the U.S. House of Representatives to ban “assault weapons,” according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Pelosi said the hearing would be held “soon” and added it was “a step the Congress took decades ago that was proven to save lives and one that American people support today.”
  • While in a House Judiciary Committee meeting, U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said, “Assault weapons are made to kill…when they’re hit with an assault weapon they cannot be identified. They are obliterated. They are weapons of war and weapons of death and weapons of destruction that we should not permit out here.”

2. Britt won’t debate because Brooks wants a ‘circus’

  • It’s been announced that there will not be a debate in the U.S. Senate race between candidate Katie Britt and U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville). Britt’s campaign said that they ended discussion about the debate because “Mo Brooks doesn’t want a debate; he wants a circus. That’s the only thing he’s capable of.”
  • The campaign added in a statement, “He doesn’t want to talk about his do-nothing record…Mo Brooks will undoubtedly resort to embarrassing our state with false, desperate personal attacks. We are seeing his lies get more blatant by the day, and there is no way that a constructive or substantive debate can occur with his continually devolving behavior.” Brooks responded to Britt’s statement by saying, “If she is too weak to stand on a stage and take Mo Brooks on, how can anyone expect her to take on Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, or any of the other Socialist Democrats that are destroying America.”

1. Durant isn’t going to vote, just like before he ran for office

  • Former U.S. Senate candidate Mike Durant announced that he will not be voting in the runoff election between U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt and U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville), despite previously saying that he would endorse Brooks if he lost in the primary.
  • Durant asserted, “The process is as broken as you can possibly imagine it being.” Durant later added in an interview with 1819 News’ Ray Melick, “Katie Britt doesn’t deserve to be a senator. Mo Brooks has been in politics for 40 years, and all he does is run his mouth. If that is the best we have, we’re in trouble.”

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