The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-24)

TUESDAY, MAY 24 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 A

CONGRESS

Ethics panel probes

trio of Republicans

The House Ethics Committee
said Monday that it is
investigating a trio of
Republican lawmakers over
allegations ranging from
accepting a “free or below-
market-value trip” to Aruba to
engaging in an improper
relationship with a staffer.
One of the lawmakers, Rep.
Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), is a
freshman who lost his primary
battle last week. The other two
are Reps. Ronny Jackson (Tex.)
and Alex Mooney (W.Va.).
In Cawthorn’s case, all 10
Democrats and Republicans
voted unanimously to establish
an investigative subcommittee
into the embattled North
Carolina Republican’s actions.

The subcommittee is tasked

with determining whether

Cawthorn “improperly

promoted a cryptocurrency in

which he may have had an

undisclosed financial interest,

and engaged in an improper

relationship with an individual

employed on his congressional

staff,” the committee said.

Cawthorn has denied

wrongdoing.

In Jackson’s case, the Office

of Congressional Ethics said

there is “substantial reason to

believe” that he used his

congressional campaign funds

to “pay for unlimited access to

the Amarillo Club, a private

dining club located in Amarillo,

Texas.”

An attorney for Jackson

maintained that the

congressman’s use of the facility

was purely for campaign

purposes.

The Federal Election

Commission prohibits the use

of campaign funds for

memberships in country clubs

and similar organizations.

The House Ethics Committee

also published a report on

Mooney, who this month won

the primary race for the

Republican nomination for the

2nd District of West Virginia.

The report said the

committee would continue to

review several allegations

against Mooney, including that

he may have accepted a “free or

below-market-value trip” to

Aruba, used a campaign

vendor’s Washington property

as a free source of lodging,

converted campaign funds to

personal use and pressured

congressional staffers to run

personal errands for his family.

Mooney’s office did not

immediately respond to a

home.

The body of Anna Moriah

“Mo” Wilson, 25, of San

Francisco, was found May 11,

and Austin police issued a

murder warrant for Kaitlin

Marie Armstrong, 34, last week.

The warrant affidavit says

there was a possible romantic

triangle involving Armstrong,

Wilson and Colin Strickland,

another professional cyclist

who had been Armstrong’s

longtime boyfriend.

The affidavit says that

Strickland took up with Wilson

after he and Armstrong split

last October but that Strickland

and Armstrong had

subsequently reconciled.

Strickland has cooperated

with investigators and is not a

suspect. Wilson was in Austin

for a race in the city of Hico,

which is about 120 miles north.

— Associated Press

DIGEST

Politics & the Nation

request for comment.

— Felicia Sonmez, Amy B Wang

and Marianna Sotomayor

TEXAS

Woman sought in

death of pro cyclist

Police were searching

Monday for a woman suspected

in the fatal shooting of a

professional cyclist at an Austin

BY JOSH DAWSEY

AND ANNIE LINSKEY

The country’s 45th president,
Donald Trump, and his onetime
governing partner, Mike Pence,
held dueling events on Monday
night for their favored candi-
dates ahead of Georgia’s highly
anticipated Republican guber-
natorial primary.
Dramatically breaking with
his former boss, Pence held an
ebullient rally with Georgia Gov.
Brian Kemp (R) on the eve of an
election the governor is expected
to win. Meanwhile, Trump ap-
peared at a tele-town hall with
the man he recruited to oust
Kemp, whom he blames for not
working feverishly enough to
overturn the 2020 presidential
election results there: former
senator David Perdue (R).
The former vice president ap-
peared with the governor in an
airport hangar in Kennesaw,
where a black bus with his logo
rolled in through a large side
door and country tunes such as
“It’s Harvest Time” blared as the
men posed for photos with sup-
porters.
“When you say yes to Brian
Kemp tomorrow, you’ll send a
deafening message across Amer-
ica that the Republican Party is
the party of the future,” Pence
said to the crowd.
Pence praised much of the
Trump administration’s agenda,
and even Kemp praised Trump.
Neither man mentioned Perdue
and instead focused their ire on
likely Democratic gubernatorial
nominee Stacey Abrams.
Kemp instead boasted of his
reopening of Georgia ahead of
others during the coronavirus
pandemic — against the guid-
ance of federal officials — and
some of his other moves, such as
suspending the state’s gas tax.
Pence briefly mentioned the
2020 election but largely con-
centrated on other topics.
Meanwhile, Trump targeted
Kemp — and Abrams — at the
town hall for Perdue.
“David is the only candidate
who can beat Stacey Abrams,
because I don’t believe Kemp
can do it. He’s got too many
people in the Republican Party
that will refuse to vote,” Trump
said. He again attacked Kemp
over the 2020 election. Perdue,

for his part, said Abrams was

“demeaning her own race” and

should leave Georgia.

“She said that Georgia is the

worst place in the country to

live. Hey, she ain’t from here. Let

her go back to where she came

from. She doesn’t like it here,”

Perdue said.

The split-screen symbolism

was stark between a once obse-

quious vice president and

Trump. The two men have not

spoken in almost a year, and

Trump has criticized Pence for

not doing more to overturn the

2020 election results. Pence,

meanwhile, has criticized

Trump’s comments about 2020,

signaling privately that he may

run in 2024, even against Trump.

If Kemp wins on Tuesday as

expected, it would be a signifi-

cant setback for Trump, who

goaded a reluctant Perdue into

competing against him, political

observers say. Fueled by anger at

Kemp for not helping him over-

turn the election, Trump has

insulted the governor for

months, organized political op-

position to him and held an

earlier rally in Georgia on Per-

due’s behalf. Trump’s political

clout will also be tested in two

other races: the Senate contest

where ex-NFL star Herschel

Walker is expected to win the

GOP nod to face Sen. Raphael G.

Warnock (D); and the secretary

of state race between Brad

Raffensperger and Trump’s pick,

Rep. Jody Hice (R).

“I had a great relationship

with President Trump,” Kemp

said during a virtual news con-

ference Monday. “I’ve never said

anything bad about him. I don’t

plan on doing that. I’m not mad

at him. I think he’s just mad at

me. And that’s something that I

can’t control.”

In interviews with about a

dozen voters at Monday night’s

Kemp rally, they all rejected

Trump’s criticisms of Kemp and

said they had grown increasing-

ly sour on the former president

because of his moves in the state.

Barry Schrenk, a 79-year-old

Atlanta resident, said he’d re-

cently had breakfast with six

friends — all of whom were

Republicans and voted for

Trump. But Schrenk’s friends

also appear to be supporting

Kemp, who he described as an

“outstanding governor” who

opened up the state “soon after

covid” hit.

“All of them voted for Trump

and said he was a good president

but he shouldn’t be sticking his

nose into this,” Schrenk said,

referring to the Georgia guber-

natorial contest. “Everyone at

the table said they were voting

for anybody now who Trump

didn’t support.”

Schrenk described Trump as

an “excellent president,” sans his

Twitter account. But his criti-

cism of Kemp had been horribly

unfair, Schrenk said. “He did

everything he could,” Schrenk

said of Kemp. “He had to follow

the Constitution. Trump...

can’t blame himself for losing

the election. He’s looking for

someone to blame.”

“You know what? I voted for

Trump both times and thought

he was a great president, but he

lost the election. And the gover-

nor doesn’t have the authority to

overturn the election,” said

Phoebe Mitchell, a speci-

al-education teacher. “When he

started criticizing Kemp, I was

not down with that. And then he

was criticizing my state. I didn’t

like that. I have lost a lot of love

for him.”

Now, Mitchell said, if Trump

endorses a “guy or gal,” the

endorsement “makes me want to

vote for anyone else.”

Brett Daise, a 22-year-old re-

cent college graduate, said he’d

voted for Trump twice but felt

differently now. Kemp was “his

guy,” he said, because of how he’d

handled the coronavirus and

made the state “open for busi-

ness,” he said. None of his

friends, he said, were voting for

Perdue.

Daise said he had turned away

from Trump because of the

Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and his

efforts to overturn the election.

“It would be enough to lose

anyone,” he said.

The Georgia gubernatorial

primary has become the latest

test over the potency of 2020

election conspiracy theories in

the GOP electorate, and may be a

template for how Republicans

can move past that election.

President Biden narrowly won

Georgia in the presidential elec-

tion and Kemp refused to ques-

tion those results and certified

them. Voters will also go to the

polls to pick nominees in a

Senate contest to replace retir-

ing Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-

Ala.); and choose candidates in

Texas runoffs for attorney gener-

al and in Democratic Rep. Henry

Cuellar’s 28th District.

In Georgia, the Republican

Governors Association, which

launched a remarkable bid to

protect incumbents from

Trump-backed challengers this

primary season, poured about

$5 million into the Kemp-Perdue

race, according to a person fa-

miliar with the funding who

spoke on the condition of ano-

nymity to share private budget

details.

If Perdue loses, his defeat will

be the third one in a governor’s

race for Trump so far in the

primary season, including

Charles Herbster in Nebraska

and Janice McGeachin in Idaho.

Trump also backed Rep. Madi-

son Cawthorn (R), who lost his

North Carolina primary last

week.

A coterie of GOP figures have

descended on Georgia in recent

days to back Kemp, including

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Ne-

braska Gov. Pete Ricketts and

former New Jersey g overnor

Chris Christie.

While Trump infused more

than $2.5 million into the cam-

paign, Perdue’s team has strug-

gled to raise money against an

incumbent and popular gover-

nor — and observers say he has

also struggled to land any politi-

cal punches against Kemp.

Georgia political observers

say Perdue’s campaign has large-

ly gone dark, with few ads or

major appearances in the final

days of the primary campaign.

Perdue’s campaign has re-

volved around unsubstantiated

claims of 2020 electoral fraud,

and he continued that on Mon-

day during his final appearance,

declining to promise that he

would accept the results of Tues-

day’s election and attacking the

news media.

“He’s divided this state,” Per-

due said of Kemp during a brief

news conference Monday. “He

allowed fraud to happen in our

election. He denied it happened.

And he covered it up ever since,”

he said, using late moments of

the campaign to continue re-

peating Trump’s false claims.

The other major contest in the

state whether R affensperger, the

secretary of state, can keep his

job. Like Kemp, he attracted a

Trump-backed primary chal-

lenger because of his refusal to

go along with Trump’s wishes to

overturn the election results.

Surprisingly, Raffensperger

has tried to court the former

president’s base by raising some

questions about the 2020 elec-

tion that he refused to overturn

without completely jettisoning

his image as an official willing to

stand up to Trump. He is being

challenged by Hice, who em-

braced Trump’s false claims

about the 2020 election.

Dawsey reported from Kennesaw,

Ga. Mariana Alfaro contributed to

this report.

In a Ga. primary, Trump and Pence go their own ways

DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Mike Pence, left, appears with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) at Cobb County International Airport.

“I’m not mad at him.

I think he’s just mad

a t me.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp,

referring to former president

Donald Trump

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