In an American Immigration Council article by Melissa Cruz, she points out his views, which are very clear over his career:

“Jones opposes construction of the Trump administration’s U.S.-Mexico border wall”

“Jones did not support the termination of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative”

“Jones favors upgrading the immigration system. Specifically, he has proposed reassessing the current quota system, as well as looking at potential overhauls to the administrative procedures for immigration.”

“If we can make a more streamlined process of allowing immigrants into this country legally…” Jones said, “we would have far less undocumented immigrants.”

“Jones publicly spoke out against HB 56—then considered the harshest anti-immigrant law in the country—and reiterated that position throughout his campaign.”

Why this matters:

No one believes Senator Jones would be in D.C. if it was not for the fact that the Republicans nominated a completely destroyed dumpster fire named Roy Moore.

The selling point by Alabama’s political press was that “Jones isn’t even that liberal”, a tactic they are using with Walt Maddox as well.

The problem for Jones is that eventually votes will have to be cast and positions will have to be taken.

The reality is Jones is wildly out of step with most Alabamians and every passing day will expose that.

@TheDaleJackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a conservative talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

“By not recognizing the importance of the LCS to our nation’s security, we hurt the long-term viability of the workforce in Alabama and all the suppliers across 41 other states. And, to some extent, we don’t recognize their importance in national security,” he said. “The [Navy’s] Future Frigate, which Alabama stands ready to support, won’t come online for a few more years. Those 4,000 workers in South Alabama need to keep working, not just sit tight and wait to be employed again in 2021. They need to work now. They need to continue the lines to make sure we have seamless transitions.”

“Let me be clear: this isn’t just about one or two ships,” he continued. “We need to consider this in terms of our long-term goals. We need to build the ships the Navy needs to do its job. We need to keep our production lines ready to go for future products. And we need to maintain the American jobs that make these efforts possible.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

But Democrats are already trying to nationalize this election by talking about the #BlueWave’s lesser known cousin #FlipTheSouth:

Congratulations to @WaltMaddox! On November 6th, let’s flip Alabama blue! #FlipTheSouth

— Randall Woodfin (@WoodfinForBham) June 6, 2018

Or go to war with Trump … in Alabama:

To win in November, Walt Maddox and other Democrats must fight Trump with Trump, argues @RoySJ: https://t.co/WBSssEb8d3 pic.twitter.com/n08jL1bpMq

— AL.com (@aldotcom) June 6, 2018

Why this matters:

Ivey isn’t Moore, and if they can’t find a silver bullet to use against Kay Ivey she is going to trounce Maddox and demoralize Alabama’s Democrats. The media and their Democrat allies truly believe Sen. Jones won his election, but he did not.

The 2017 special election was won by Democrats because Republicans stayed home. Unless that happens again, Maddox has no prayer.

The details:

— Jones won because he got 92 percent of Clinton’s vote total from 2016 while Moore just got 49 percent of Trump’s. That won’t happen again.

— Ivey more than doubled Walt Maddox’s primary total.

— Ivey also beat all Democrats combined.

— Second-place GOP finisher, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, only trailed Maddox by roughly 10,000 votes.

@TheDaleJackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a conservative talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

“Unfortunately, I’ve also – and I think a lot of people on both sides of the aisle are cautiously optimistic because North Korea has a history, and the history has not been very good, and the history is they have not acted in good faith. Some of the rhetoric that we had seen suggested that was where we were headed. And so it’s disappointing that’s been canceled. I am not surprised given what has happened in the last couple of weeks.”

Jones said he was discouraged Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser John Bolton invoked what they had called the “Libya model.” Experts have warned that that could be seen as a reference to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Gadhafi had agreed to abandon Libya’s nuclear program. However, years later Gadhafi was overthrown and killed by rebels.

“Having said that, I think there’s been a little bit of improper rhetoric on both sides at this point,” he continued. “I was very disappointed to hear some of the vice president’s comments and comparing the situation and asking people to remember about Libya. And John Bolton did the same thing. I just don’t think those are very helpful. When you’re trying to come to the peace table, and you’re trying to talk to people, trying to get something that is so important – not just to the people of Korea, but important to the world – that we try to get nuclear weapons out of the peninsula of Korea.

He went on to say he was optimistic about the prospects of diplomacy but hopes the United States can avoid going back where it was at the beginning of the Trump administration regarding North Korea.

“So, we’re disappointed, but with this, I’m assuming, and I think I’m correct, that this administration is taking a few steps back,” Jones said. “They’re not going to stop. They’re going to continue to look at this issue. Congress will continue to work with them and continue to look at it so that this situation will hopefully continue to be on a path forward and this doesn’t get us back to where we were a year or so ago when it was just a lot of name-calling and chest-bumping about who is strongest. I don’t think that’s the way to do it. I’m one for diplomacy, try to make diplomacy work, and I think we’ll get back there. I’m very hopeful we will. I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy. That’s the way I’m going to look at it.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

“While her career has been impressive, Ms. Haspel’s role in programs that conducted torture is very troubling; her refusal to acknowledge the immorality of such conduct even today with the benefit of hindsight is even more so and reflects poorly on our nation’s reputation as a moral leader in the world,” it continued. “Her statement today that the ‘enhanced interrogation program is not one the CIA should have undertaken’ has not relieved my concerns, which are rooted in both the responsibility I feel as a Senator and in my own deeply held faith.”

“I appreciate the commitment of Ms. Haspel and her colleagues to the service and defense of our nation, and I do not doubt the skills and expertise she has gained during her long career in the CIA,” the statement concluded. “However, the leader of the CIA, an organization tasked with operating clandestinely to keep Americans safe, must be held to the highest possible standard. There is a legal and moral responsibility that comes with operating in secrecy. Some of Ms. Haspel’s past actions and beliefs did not meet that standard. We must choose leaders that consistently embody our highest ideals, rather than our darkest moments.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

“Ms. O’Donnell made two separate contributions to the Jones campaign. Using the ActBlue online fundraising system, which does not automatically prevent over-the-limit donations, she contributed the maximum of $2,700 in late September 2017. Using the same online system, she contributed again the day before the election. The campaign will bring this situation into full compliance which, in this case, will be done with a refund of the amount over $2,700.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

O’Donnell’s leftward politics first spilled into view years ago when she confronted actor Tom Selleck on her daytime talk show for his support of the NRA. She’s been a vocal advocate for leftist policies and a sometimes vulgar critic of conservatives since.

“Nothing nefarious,” O’Donnell told the Post. “I was not choosing to over donate. If [$2,700] is the cut off — [candidates] should refund the money.”

She claims to have used the contribution platform ActBlue to make the donations and said she doesn’t keep up with exactly how much she’s given to candidates.

The Post said Jones’ office didn’t return messages seeking comments.

(Sign-up for our daily newsletter here and never miss another article from Yellowhammer News.)

“My message is to any candidate,” Jones said. “I think that one of the things that we were successful about is that we really focused on those what I call ‘kitchen-table issues,’ those issues that mean something to people every day. All the time in the past, we have seen so many issues that divide us. And those issues, it’s not that they aren’t important, but they’re not the kind of issues that people talk about every day with their family. And we’ve got some real opportunities in this state to make inroads on health care, both in cities as well as the rural areas. We’ve got opportunities in Mobile and Huntsville, and Birmingham and other areas have done a great job of bringing in businesses. We can attract those same businesses into the other areas. Everybody has to focus I think on talking about those issues that really mean something to people every day when they sit down at the table with their spouse, or their children, or their parents.”

“And I think if the Democratic Party does that, they can have some success,” he continued. “And I think we’re seeing that both with the Democratic Party, but also, I think you’re seeing that at some point – you’re not seeing it as much in the Republican primary, but I think you’ll see that going into the fall election – that one thing people are yearning for is answers to real questions and answers to everyday questions. And that’s been my advice to candidates on both sides of the aisle: Focus on the people, don’t focus on those issues that divide us. Find that common ground, find that solution. And I think that’s a winning formula for anybody.”

When asked about the possibility of legislating from the majority, which is contingent on Democrats winning control of the U.S. Senate this November, Jones dismissed it and noted that even if that were to happen, the federal government would still be split given Republicans have control of the White House.

“It’s really not,” he replied when asked if he had thought about the U.S. Senate being controlled by Democrats in the future. “I’m just trying to do the kind of things for the state that I feel like are appropriate regardless of who is in control. I don’t subscribe necessarily to this blue wave that people are talking about. I think folks are going to be looking at the issues. If things change, it will only be a portion of the change. You know, there’s two branches of government here with the executive and the legislative. They both all have to work together. That is not completely happening right now, even with one party controlling both of those branches of government. What I’d like to see is people moving to that center, moving to where we can talk to each other and find that common ground. That is the key to everything.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

The Republican Moore lost the Senate race to Democrat Doug Jones after women came forward claiming Moore made sexual advances on them years ago when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers.

Moore denies wrongdoing, and he’s filed suit claiming to be the victim of a conspiracy. One of Moore’s accusers is suing him for defamation.

(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

“Doug Jones is a blue senator in a red state. And if you’re going to survive … you can’t go to Washington and be all navy blue or completely crimson red,” he said.

What’s more, Pompeo’s fate was not in doubt. He had unanimous Republican support and a handful of Democrats already had announced they would back him. So, Jones could not have blocked the nomination, anyway.

Given those circumstances, Brown said, it would be foolish for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to insist on the confirmation vote as a litmus test” for vulnerable members.

“Why make Doug Jones take a lot of heat for this vote when he’s [Pompeo] going to be seated, anyway?” he said.

In his statement explaining his vote, Jones shared concerns about some of Pompeo’s past statements but added that the nominee had “demonstrated the ability to be an effective manager and operator on the world stage. I also believe his perspective having worked in the intelligence community will be valuable given the national security challenges he would face as Secretary on day one.”

In breaking ranks with his party, Jones joined Democratic senators Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Ben Nelson of Florida — as well as Maine independent Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats.

All of those senators are up for re-election this year, and all but King hail from states that Trump carried in 2016.

Liberals are unconvinced, however.

Will Benton, a Democrat running for the Alabama House of Representatives in Tuscaloosa County, warned on Twitter that Jones would hurt his 2020 election bid.

“You won’t see this level of enthusiasm for your candidacy in 2020 if you continue to ignore and antagonize your base here in Alabama. #ALDems #NoPompeo,” he tweeted.

He added that Jones would not see yard signs and volunteers the helped propel him to victory in December’s special election.

“It also means no canvassing, no rallies, no prayer breakfast, and no victory parties,” he tweeted. “@SenDougJones are you really sure you want the effort #ALDems grassroots have exercised on your behalf and throw that out the door by being a yes vote on Pompeo?”

An activist named Zach Carter tweeted that the Pompeo vote can be added to votes to extend
a program allowing for warrantless surveillance and to roll back financial regulations on banks.

“We don’t just need more Democrats; we need better Democrats,” he tweeted.

Lisa Youngblood, a self-described resistance member, tweeted that Jones should be “ashamed” of himself, adding that “the people of Alabama didn’t vote for you to be against them.”

And that is just a sampling of the clean criticism. Twitter was filled with profane comments directed at Jones.

To Brown, such remarks are evidence that hyper-partisans are “blinded” by their own ideological fervor.

“In spite of their involvement in a party organization, these people, these people are, in a way, politically naïve,” he said.

@BrendanKKirby is a senior political reporter at LifeZette and author of “Wicked Mobile.”

“After meeting with Director Pompeo, reviewing the record of his confirmation hearings, and speaking with others with expertise in national security and diplomacy, I believe he has the skills required to meet the weighty and urgent demands facing our State Department today,” Jones said in a statement. “I have therefore decided to support his confirmation as Secretary of State.

In his role at the CIA, Mr. Pompeo has demonstrated the ability to be an effective manager and operator on the world stage. I also believe his perspective having worked in the intelligence community will be valuable given the national security challenges he would face as Secretary on day one.”

“In our conversations, I did share my concerns about certain troubling statements he made as a member of Congress,” he added. “He gave me his word that, as Secretary of State, diplomacy would always be his first priority and he would ensure that our nation continues to be a leader in protecting human rights and the dignity of all people. If he is confirmed, I will join my colleagues both in working with him to tackle the very serious challenges and threats we face as a nation, as well as to provide continued oversight of his and his department’s actions.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

“Local newspapers are an essential component of the communities they serve, both as the primary distributor of regional news and advertisements for small business,” Jones said in a statement. “For an industry that is already struggling, a 22-percent import increase groundwood paper from Canada has the potential to close down small-town papers across the country. I urge Secretary Ross to evaluate these tariffs soon before they force our small-town Alabama media outlets to cut jobs, local media coverage, or both.”

According to Scottsboro’s Jackson County Sentinel editor Brandon Cox, newsprint, which is sold in increments of tons, will increase from $600 per ton to nearly $800 per ton, and that could cost his newspaper’s business $100,000 annually.

Full letter as follows:

The Honorable Wilbur Ross

Secretary

United States Department of Commerce

1401 Constitution Avenue N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20230

Dear Secretary Ross:

I am writing in response to the Commerce Department’s investigation into imports of uncoated groundwood paper from Canada. I urge you to take into account the challenges faced by domestic newsprint customers, including those in my home state of Alabama, as you continue your investigation.

Combatting unfair trade practices and ensuring a level playing field for American businesses are goals that I share with President Trump and the Administration. I am concerned though in the case of tariffs on uncoated groundwood paper that the harm for American consumers will far outweigh the good.

Demand for newsprint in the United States has declined steeply in recent years and newsprint production has fallen as a result. Domestic newsprint production cannot meet the demands of American publishers. Small publishers, like weekly papers that serve rural areas, are particularly vulnerable to changes in newsprint price or supply. These papers can’t afford to pay higher prices for newsprint and many will be forced to close their doors and lay off employees if the current temporary tariffs and countervailing duties continue to be imposed.

These papers are an important part of the communities they serve. They report on local events that are not always covered in larger papers, are an affordable way for local businesses to advertise to customers, and in general create a sense of community for their readers.

This is why a cross section of domestic newsprint manufacturers and consumers, as well as the American Forest and Paper Association, National Newspaper Association, and News Media Alliance oppose the additional penalties that are currently being imposed.

I urge you to take the plight of Alabama’s newspapers and those across the country into account as the Department of Commerce concludes its investigation.

Thank you for considering this request.

Sincerely,

Doug Jones

United States Senator

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

“I urge you to vote ‘Yes’ to confirm President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo,” Brooks wrote. “I have personally known Mike Pompeo since he and I came to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011. I have great respect for his judgment and abilities. His reputation is impeccable. Mike was first in his class at West Point and has served honorable in the U.S. Army, U.S. House of Representatives, and as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Brooks went on to remind Jones that he pledged to be bipartisan and avoid partisan obstructionism during his 2017 campaign, and said a vote in the affirmative for Pompeo would be a way to fulfill that pledge.

Read the full letter:

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

At a town hall meeting for University of Alabama students in Tuscaloosa last week, Jones addressed the Pompeo matter and explained how he sought to follow in the footsteps of one of his predecessors, former Alabama Sen. Howell Heflin.

“I start with any presidential nomination with a needle in favor of the president,” Jones said. “I go back to my role as a staff member for the late Sen. Howell Heflin from Alabama.”

According to Jones, Heflin began with a view of the confirmation process in favor of the nominee.

“As chief justice [of the Alabama Supreme Court], he always felt constitutionally bound that his role and his view that the president should be given the benefit of the doubt with regard to nominations,” Jones said. “However, that does not mean that it would take a lot to move that needle back. If you do the appropriate work, you can figure this out and determine for yourself whether or not a nomination is qualified, whether or not they’re going to uphold the law. And that will mean voting for someone that I did not personally agree with and would not have personally appointed if I were king or I were president.”

At the time the Tuscaloosa event on April 13, Jones had not met with Pompeo. A representative from Jones’ office told Yellowhammer News Jones and Pompeo met on Thursday.

“He has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill,” Jones said. “He has not made it to my office yet. I fully expect him to at some point. I want to reserve my judgment on him. He has been confirmed once.”

Critics of Pompeo have opposed his confirmation on the grounds of his view on U.S. involvement in the Middle East and the use of “torture” as a means of interrogation.

“I have heard and understand the criticism and concerns and I want to talk to him about it,” Jones said.

For the time being, Jones remains non-committal on the confirmation, especially given he was not a U.S. Senator when Pompeo was confirmed to be CIA director in 2017.

“The jury is out for me at this point as a freshman senator that didn’t have the benefit of voting on him the last time,” he said.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

Editor note: This story was updated to reflect Jones had met with Pompeo two days earlier per Jones’ office.

Jones explained how recently the FCC had abdicated its role as the Internet’s regulator, which he said made “no sense.”

“The FCC came up with the Internet protections, the Internet regulations, the open Internet rule to try to levelize the playing field,” he said. “Make sure that everyone that had access to the Internet had essentially the same access from all places.”

“This past year, the recent FCC has decided to roll back that,” Jones continued. “They decided to change that and say, ‘We don’t really have this jurisdiction. It needs to be from somewhere else.’ The Federal Communications Commission, which I can’t really understand why – the Federal Communications Commission is saying we do not have the authority or should not have the authority to regulate the Internet because it is not under our jurisdiction. That makes no sense to me.”

According to Alabama’s junior senator, the hope by some is to put the Internet under the purview of either the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice.

“Now, they want to put it over the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, or the Department of Justice – none of that makes any sense to me,” Jones said. “It may make sense to you. If it does, I would like to hear, seriously.”

Jones argued the Internet was a communications device, and therefore should remain under the jurisdiction of the FCC.

“I’m having a hard time with the FCC deciding how someone else – particularly the Department of Justice,” he added. “I mean, I’ve done two stints with the Department of Justice, one as an assistant U.S. Attorney many years ago, and then as U.S. Attorney about 15 years ago.”

Jones explained how Congress could get involved and by statute put the Internet back under the FCC’s regulatory duties. He cited using the Congressional Review Act of 1996 to override the FCC’s decision.

“It is not used very often, but it gives Congress the opportunity to weigh in,” he said. “Right now there are 50 senators out of the 100 – not quite enough to get us over the hump – that have signed on to the congressional resolution, the Congressional Review Act, the CRA, that would roll back and halt the FCC’s doing away with their own rule that they had in 2015.

“I don’t know where that’s going to go,” he added, noting that it wasn’t something that would require the signature of President Donald Trump to put into motion.

Jones went on to pledge his support for a “free and open” Internet, and warned that without net neutrality big Internet companies would put profits ahead of consumers and perhaps created fast and slow “lanes.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

Many of his votes have been fairly nondescript. He voted for February’s continuing appropriations resolution, for the recent spending bill, against the White House’s immigration proposal, against the banning of abortions after 20 weeks. These votes fall mostly within the party’s mainstream.

However, Jones has elsewhere demonstrated a willingness to split from his party in support of some key conservative reforms and of the president.

Chief among those cases is his vote in support of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which loosened financial regulations put in place by Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Progressive heavyweights – Sens. Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and 28 other Democrats – voted against the bill. Dodd-Frank is at the heart of progressive regulatory policy, and a vote in favor of reforming it is a significant split from that.

Jones has also supported several of President Trump’s nominees, voting in favor of Alex Azar’s nomination to the post of secretary of Health and Human Services and in favor of David Ryan Stras’s nomination to the Eighth Circuit. Only five other Democrats supported Azar’s nomination, and only six others supported Stras’s.

To be clear, these things make Jones a moderate Democrat, not a political moderate overall.

Most Alabamians surely like to see Jones supporting conservative reforms and supporting the president, but his extreme position on abortion remains a major hurdle.

Jones should – as Yellowhammer News Editor Pepper Bryars argued in January – sincerely consider reforming his position on abortion, not only to reflect the overwhelming majority of Alabamians’ beliefs about abortion, but because it’s the right thing to do.

@jeremywbeaman is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News

Only Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan had higher approval ratings in the survey released Thursday. And in terms of net approval — approval minus disapproval — only Baker outperforms Ivey.

This stands as an outlier in another way. Among the five most popular governors, only Ivey serves a deep red state. The other four all are Republicans in Northeastern states that lean either slightly or dramatically to the left. In addition to Baker and Hogan, that includes Vermont’s Phil Scott and New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu.

All of the 10 most popular governors are Republicans, a bright spot for a party bracing for losses in other races in the upcoming midterm elections.

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, a Democrat, is the nation’s most unpopular governor — with a whopping 72 percent of the state’s voters giving him a thumbs-down.

Five governors seeking re-election are under water — Illinois Republican Bruce Rauner (minus 34 percentage points), Alaska independent Bill Walker (minus 23 points), Hawaii Democrat David Ige (minus 12 points), Rhode Island Democrat Gina Raimondo (minus 11 points), Wisconsin Republican Scott Walker (minus 7 points).

Senate ratings

The Morning Consult poll puts Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) in the middle of the pack, with 51 percent of Alabama voters approving of his job performance and 30 percent disapproving. That is similar to the results of a Morning Consult poll released in January. Half of Alabama voters approved of Shelby’s performance, while 28 percent disapproved.

Shelby’s net positive rating of 21 points in the current survey ties for 27th most popular senator in the country.

That is a percentage point below Jones, who stunned the political world in December with his upset victory in a special election to fill the Senate seat that Jeff Sessions vacated to become attorney general.

A smaller share of Alabama voters approve of Jones — 47 percent. But only 25 percent said they disapprove. More people had no opinion one way or another compared to Shelby.

Jones, for now, is ahead of Luther Strange — who won appointment to the seat but failed to win the GOP nomination for the special election. Jones had a 42 percent approval rating — with 34 percent disapproving — according to his last Morning Consult poll.

Morning Consult declared that Jones is “off to a fine start among voters in Alabama.”

Jones fares much better than the Senate’s other newcomer — Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, appointed to fill the seat left open when Al Franken resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. Smith gets a positive rating from a third of Minnesota voters, with 21 percent disapproving. A large chunk of voters in the North Star State do not know her or have an opinion.

The nation’s most popular senators are evenly split along partisan lines — five Republicans and three Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remains the most popular senator, with a 72 percent approval rating among home-state voters. Fellow Vermonter Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, is second with a 65 percent approval rating.

As they were in the last Morning Consult poll, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) are the least popular senators. Both have net disapproval ratings of minus 18 points.

McConnell will not be on the ballot in November and Flake is leaving office. But the results contain bad news for four senators who will be on the ballot — Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Dean Heller (R-Nev.). All are among the 10 least popular senators in America.

@BrendanKKirby is a senior political reporter at LifeZette and author of “Wicked Mobile.”

Selma Times-Journal president and publisher Dennis Palmer echoed the same concerns in an op-ed featured in the Saturday edition of his newspaper. According to Palmer, even though the newsprint for the Times-Journal doesn’t come from Canada, the tariffs have increased the price for all newsprint, and that raises his costs.

“The Selma Times-Journal is printed almost entirely on paper made in Grenada, Mississippi,” he wrote. “Community newspapers like ours represent a sliver of newspaper demand. Despite still-healthy print readership, we alone cannot create enough demand to stimulate the U.S. newsprint market and bring shuttered mills back to life. Yet our need for newsprint to fulfill our obligation to readers is as enduring as that of the Washington Post or New York Times.”

Jackson County Sentinel editor Brandon Cox estimated in an editorial in his newspaper last week the annual cost for business as a result of the tariffs could be $100,000 annually.

“Newsprint, sold in increments of tons, will see costs rise from $600 per ton to nearly $800 per ton. Last year, the Sentinel required approximately 450 tons of newsprint to produce Jackson County’s newspaper and the eight other community newspapers that print in Scottsboro,” he wrote. “The effects of these tariffs represent a nearly $100,000 increase to material expenses for our operation that employs 30 people in Jackson County.”

Very well could be, if something doesn’t change. If not more.

— Brandon Cox (@BrandonJCox) April 8, 2018

All three newspapers urged their respective members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Sens. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) and Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) to intervene and halt the tariff on newsprint.

“We join others in the news industry and in communities across the U.S. in calling for an end to the unnecessary newsprint tariff,” the Cullman Times editorial concluded.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

Scott Pruitt was one of President-elect Donald Trump’s first cabinet-level nominees when Trump announced him as his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency in December 2016. Trump’s opponents immediately denounced Pruitt as unfit for the post given he was a “climate change denier.” Nevertheless, that following February, the Senate confirmed Pruitt by a 52–46 vote.

Since arriving at the EPA, Pruitt has rolled back many of the Obama-era regulations, including those on fossil fuels and coal-fired power plants. These regulations granted the federal bureaucracy more power over states and municipalities.

This has not set well with the career bureaucrats within the EPA, and now we’re on to the incredibly petty.

Critics and self-appointed watchdogs have hit Pruitt for a $50-a-night rooming arrangement, as if Capitol Hill rent for $1,500-a-month was going to be the cherry on top of the ice cream Sunday that would sway Pruitt’s environmental policy to favor evil corporate-billionaire executives who want to pollute the air and water to maximize profits.

These critics have also called into question Pruitt’s travel expenses, which are comparable to his Obama administration EPA predecessors.

It has not stopped Alabama’s “Mr. Work with Both Sides” Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) from joining the fray. Jones toed the Democratic Party line when asked about Pruitt.

“I think he’s in real trouble,” Jones said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.” “I think that there is a perception is not good at all. The fact that he has been – has a controversy with expenses, which I think is one of the things that people are just frustrated with, with cabinet members who seem to want to use taxpayer dollars to fund a life, their own personal lifestyle. And now on top of this, the — you know, not just the $50, but the fact that it was going to energy company lobbyists, that – it just looks so bad. And I think it seems that he may be on his way out.”

It isn’t as if Pruitt is operating in uncharted territory. Obviously, conservatives would like to see less government where possible, and for many the abolition of the EPA altogether. However, these charges are phony.

Disappointed and defeated environmentalist activists are targeting Pruitt because he is effective. Pruitt’s opponents are not willing to accept that elections have consequences, and attempting to discredit him for doing things at the EPA the way they have always been done is one of the few weapons they have left in their paltry arsenal.

Pruitt’s real crime here is failing to see this coming.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.

Although Republicans picked up 63 seats in the House of Representatives that year, the party went zero for 10 in Massachusetts. The Democratic governor, Deval Patrick, won re-election and the party actually gained a seat in the state Senate. (Republicans did pick up 17 seats to give them 32 in the 160-seat state House).

Brown, himself, lasted only until the next election — in 2012, when he lost to current Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Will it be any different for Alabama Democrats? Political experts are skeptical.

“Because of Doug Jones’ win, you don’t reclassify Alabama as a competitive state,” said Jess Brown, an emeritus political science professor at Athens State University in north Alabama. “Alabama is still crimson red.”

Eric Ostermeier, a political researcher at the University of Minnesota and founder of the Smart Politics blog, said parties even in one-side states occasionally can pull off upsets under the right circumstances. But they usually prove to be outliers, he added.

“In general, most of the states where one party is in power for a long time, there is a normal pullback,” he said.

Parallels between Alabama in 2018 and Massachusetts in 2010 abound. Before their special election breakthroughs, the party of power in both states had not cracked a Senate seat in a long time.

For Alabama, it had been since 1992, when Sen. Richard Shelby — now a Republican from Tuscaloosa — won re-election as a Democrat. In Massachusetts before Brown, it had been even longer since a Republican had won— 1972.

Both Brown and Jones faced opponents who, despite having won statewide office before, carried liabilities into their special elections.

Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, of course, had a controversial career because of his strident stands on social conservatism and then found himself the target of late-breaking allegations that he had inappropriate sexual contact with teenage girls when he was a young prosecutor in the 1970s.

Jess Brown said it created a perfect storm for Jones that is not easily replicated.

“His victory was the product of simply a very weak candidate,” he said. “The Alabama Republican Party practically could have picked a name at random out of the phone book and he would have won.”

Democratic Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, meanwhile, did not have anywhere that level of baggage, but she generally was regarded as a lackluster campaigner who committed some high-profile gaffes on the campaign trail. She went on to later lose a gubernatorial election to Republican Charlie Baker.

Alabama Democrats are undeterred, however. Everywhere you turn, the party is bubbling with excitement. Large numbers of Democrats signed up to run for office, including in Republican strongholds where the party in past years has not even bothered to field candidates.

Democrats tell each other and the world that the victory in December by Jones has them believing they can win.

Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley stops short of predicting a Democratic sweep in November.

“But I think the chances are good at getting other Democrats to follow Doug Jones’ winning mode,” she said. “He certainly inspired a lot of excitement.”

Worley said the party’s “unprecedented success” at recruiting candidates is going to result in many tight races, even if the Democrats don’t win them all.

“Quite frankly, the records of a lot of Republican legislators are going to be looked at closely,” she said.

But in the first test of the Jones Effect, a Democratic candidate came up short last week in a special election for the state House of Representatives in a district that Jones won in December with 57 percent of the vote.

Worley depicted the glass as half full, noting that Republican Rex Reynolds was well-known as a former Huntsville police chief and city official. Yet, Worley noted, Democrat Terry Jones kept the race much closer than he did in 2014 when he ran against incumbent Republican Jim Patterson.

“He stands a very good chance of winning in the fall,” she said, noting that the two candidates will square off in a rematch in November.

Jones, himself, seems much more cautious about imputing excessive meaning in his victory.

“Not in a sense from flipping a state from red to blue,” Jones told FM 106.5 radio talk show host Sean Sullivan last week in Mobile. “I don’t think that that is going to happen, and frankly, I don’t think it should happen in that context. What I’m hoping to see out of our election is people are now starting to focus on issues rather than party.”

But Jones, the Athens State political science professor, said the Jones win has energized a party badly in need of new life. That attracts volunteers and candidates who can lay the groundwork for gains down the road, he said.

“You’ve got to keep people believing victory is possible. … That’s the way you continue to grow,” he said. “That’s what Republicans did to become competitive.”

Ostermeier, the University of Minnesota political scientist, noted that of the 16 special Senate elections held in off years across the country in the last 70 years, the party trying to defend the seat lost a majority of the contests.

In four of those races, the winning candidate’s party went on to electoral success in the following election — Democrat William Proxmire in Wisconsin in 1957; Republican John Tower in Texas in 1961; Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison in Texas in 1993; and Democrat Ron Wyden in Oregon in 1996.

All four saw their parties pick up congressional seats in the next election.

So, Ostermeier said, short-term success is possible.

“That’s sort of the best-case scenario you could paint,” he said.

@BrendanKKirby is a senior political reporter at LifeZette and author of “Wicked Mobile.”

Jones is a Democrat who won a special election in December. He compared students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida to young people who demonstrated after four girls were killed in a Birmingham church bombing in 1963. Jones later prosecuted the bombers.

He said the students were “awakening the consciousness of America regarding gun violence” and urged Congress to adopt a series of measures, including expansion of background checks for gun purchases.

(Image: Doug Jones/Facebook)

(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

Harriot, who claims to have once been a college macroeconomics instructor, goes on to add Jones and the Democratic Party “have thrown black people to the wolves.” He argues the bipartisan effort passed by the Senate on Wednesday “strips away for some banks the requirement to report the race, ethnicity and gender of their mortgage customers.”

That according to Harriot will make it easier for lenders “to deny black customers without fear of repercussion or lawsuits.”

Harriot goes on to note Jones had overwhelming support by the African-American community in Alabama last December but hammers him for his voting record:

[W]hen it comes to Doug Jones, even though he received 93 percent of the black male vote and a whopping 98 percent of the black female vote, he has not demonstrated that he intends to do anything for black Alabama voters. Jones has supported Trump’s position on 60 percent of the issues since black voters sent him to the Senate.

In an op-ed posted to AL(dot)com on Thursday, Jones defended his vote on the bill. He called it “regulatory relief,” and said it would not enable Wall Street to make the same mistakes of the past. He also hailed it for restoring the role credit unions play in some communities.

“At the end of the day, this will help our Alabama banks focus on what they do best – making loans to Main Street, while letting federal regulators do what they do best – focus their limited resources on Wall Street,” Jones wrote.

Harriot’s publication The Root is described as “a top online destination for African-American news and commentary.” It initially launched in 2008 by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Donald Graham. Gates is known by some as the Harvard professor arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in 2009. That arrest led to then-President Barack Obama’s famous beer summit with Gates and the arresting officer, Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley.

Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Company, is the son of long-time Washington Post publishers Katharine and Philip Graham.

In 2015, Univision purchased The Root.

(Image: Michael Harriot/Facebook & Wikimedia Commons)

Jeff Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and works as the editor of Breitbart TV. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeff_poor.