7. Former GOP chairmen endorse Brooks
- Former ALGOP chairmen Terry Lathan, Bill Armistead and Marty Connors have all decided to endorse U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) in his campaign for U.S. Senate. Lathan said, “Brooks has a solid conservative voting record that is the gold standard of Alabama principles.”
- Armistead asserted that we’re currently in “a battle for the soul of our nation.” Connors added, “[W]e need predictability in our U.S. senators. There is no guesswork with Mo Brooks…Mo is reliable, a known quantity. We know who he is.”
6. January 6 records won’t be protected
- Former President Donald Trump’s request to have documents released relating to the January 6 riot was denied by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who said that “this is a dispute between a former and incumbent President.” That is in line with what the U.S. Supreme Court had previously determined.
- Previously, Biden removed executive privilege concerning the documents, which includes “a draft Executive Order on the topic of election integrity” according to the National Archives. Trump has called attempts to release documents to the House committee investigating January 6 a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition,” adding it’s “untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose.”
5. Brooks wants to keep executive funds from being used for the mandate
- U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) has explained more about his “Defund Federal Vaccine Mandates Act,” where he seeks to prevent any federal dollars from being “used to establish, implement, or enforce any of the vaccine mandate.”
- Brooks also said that he views the mandate as “unconstitutional,” adding that he doesn’t “know anything in the United States Constitution that empowers the federal government to force medical treatments on citizens.” He went on to say that “the federal government is intervening between a patient and a doctor and telling the patient and the doctor what treatment they have to take regardless of the risk of loss of life or some kind of disability resulting from that treatment. That’s wrong.”
4. Customs and Border Protection agents are going to have to be vaccinated or else
- Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents will have to be fully vaccinated by November 22, President Joe Biden’s deadline for federal employees. Recently, emails were obtained that show supervisors were told to push agents into getting vaccinated.
- An email says that “all U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) supervisors are ordered to have a discussion with each of their employees (direct reports)” on the issue of getting vaccinated. If supervisors don’t have these talks, they “will be subject to potential discipline for insubordination, up to removal from federal service.” There were specific points supervisors had to cover and report on.
3. Inflation up big, Manchin remains skeptical about adding to it
- In news that surprises no one, inflation is at its highest point in over 30 years (up 0.9% from last month and 6.2% annually) as President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress prepare yet another massive spending bill. Even Biden acknowledged the issue while promoting the recently passed infrastructure bill. He lamented the price of gasoline and other consumer goods, saying, “Did you ever think you’d be paying this much for a gallon of gas?”
- U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) sees this all as yet another reason to delay President Biden’s attempt to pass another massive spending bill known as “Build Back Better”. Manchin wants a “strategic pause” saying, “From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and D.C. can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day.”
2. Polling shows Britt up over Brooks
- A new Cygnal poll shows that in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama, candidate Katie Britt has taken the lead over U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville). This comes after an internal survey from the Britt campaign reported similar numbers earlier in the week, that many doubted.
- The survey included 650 respondents with a 3.84% margin of error and was conducted from November 3-4. The poll shows Britt with 24%, Brooks with 22%, veteran Mike Durant with 9%, businesswoman Jessica Taylor with 1% and former U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia Lynda Blanchard with 1%, while 4% chose someone else.
1. Me fail reading? Unpossible
- Governor Kay Ivey has informed the Alabama Board of Education that she’s going to try to delay the Alabama Literacy Act. Previously, the legislature had passed a delay on the literacy requirement and Ivey vetoed it.
- If delayed, it would be for one year before third graders would be required to be proficient in reading at their grade level before advancing to the fourth grade. Ivey has also said that there needs to be more information gathered on test scores from students this school year before the requirement goes into effect.
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