About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 2018)
8A Monday, November 12, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com WASHINGTON/POLITICS Dems pressure Whitaker to back off Mueller probe ANDREW HARNIKI Associated Press Acting United States Attorney General Matt Whitaker, center, and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, second from right, attend a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, Sunday, Nov. 11, in Arlington, Va. BY HOPE YEN AND MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON — Stepping up Democratic efforts to shield the Russia investigation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday he would seek to tie a measure protecting special coun sel Robert Mueller to must-pass legislation if acting attorney gen eral Matthew Whitaker does not recuse himself from oversight of the probe. Schumer pointed to Whitaker’s “history of hostile statements” toward the Mueller investigation. “If he stays there, he will create a constitutional crisis by inhibit ing Mueller or firing Mueller. So Congress has to act,” Schumer told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We Democrats, House and Senate, will attempt to add to must-pass legislation, in this case the spending bill, legislation that would prevent Mr. Whitaker from interfering with the Mueller investigation.” Schumer sent a letter to the Justice Department on Sunday along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other top Demo crats that calls for Lee Lofthus, an assistant attorney general and the department’s chief ethics officer, to disclose whether he had advised Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the probe. The Demo crats cited Whitaker’s past public statements, which have included an op-ed article in which he said Mueller would be straying outside his mandate if he investigated President Donald Trump’s family finances and a talk radio interview in which he maintained there was no evidence of collusion between the Russia and the Trump cam paign during the 2016 election. The letter asked Lofthus to explain his reasoning for any recommendation he made to Whitaker regarding recusal and to provide all ethics guidance provided to the acting attorney general. Whitaker, a Republican Party loyalist and chief of staff to just- ousted Attorney General Jeff Ses sions, was elevated Wednesday after Trump forced Sessions out. Whitaker has faced pressure from Democrats to recuse himself from overseeing Mueller based on the comments, which were made before he joined the Justice Department last year. He has also tweeted an ex-prosecutor’s opin ion piece that described a “Muel ler lynch mob,” which he said was “worth a read.” The Mueller protection bill would give any special counsel a 10-day window to seek review of a firing and ensure that the person was fired for good cause. It’s unclear if Republicans would agree to add the bill to the spend ing legislation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said there is no need for it, but other Republicans, like Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, have called for the bill since Whitaker was appointed. Schumer declined to say whether Democrats would be willing to force a government shutdown if Congress did not pass a measure protecting Mueller, suggesting it wouldn’t come to that because of bipartisan support. “There’s no rea son we shouldn’t add this and avoid a constitutional crisis,” he said. “If that doesn’t happen, we will see what happens down the road.” The bipartisan Mueller legisla tion was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April and was co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, described Trump’s appointment of Whita ker as “an attack” on the Mueller investigation and said protecting that probe will be his committee’s top priority. Nadler told ABC’s “This Week” if Whitaker is still act ing attorney general when Nadler becomes Judiciary chairman next year, “one of our first orders of business will be to invite him, and if necessary to subpoena him, to appear before the committee.” Tensions rise as Florida election recount gets underway BY KELLI KENNEDY AND TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After some early bumps, more than half of Florida’s 67 counties began recounting votes Sunday in the razor-thin Senate and gubernatorial races, bring ing back memories of the 2000 presidential fiasco. In Democratic-leaning Broward County, the sched uled start of the recount was delayed Sunday because of a problem with one of the tabulation machines. The Republican Party attacked Broward’s supervisor of elections, Brenda Snipes, of “incompetence and gross mismanagement” follow ing the delay, which was resolved within two hours. The county, the state’s second-most populous, is emerging as the epicen ter of controversy in the recount. Broward offi cials said they mistakenly counted 22 absentee bal lots that had been rejected, mostly because the signa ture on the return enve lope did not match the one on file. It is a problem that appears impossible to fix because the ballots were mixed in with 205 legal bal lots. Snipes said it would be unfair to throw out all the ballots. The recount in most other major population centers, including Miami- Dade and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in the Tampa Bay area, was ongoing without incident on Sunday. Smaller counties are expected to begin their reviews Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. All counties face a Thursday afternoon deadline to complete the recount. The reviews are an unprecedented step in Florida, a state that’s noto rious for election results decided by the thinnest of margins. State officials said they weren’t aware of any other time either a race for governor or U.S. Senate in Florida required a recount, let alone both in the same election. Unofficial results show that Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 0.41 percentage points in the election for governor. In BRYNN ANDERSON I Associated Press Elections staff prepare for a recount at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office on Sunday, Nov. 11, in Lauderhill, Fla. the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is 0.14 percentage points. State law requires a machine recount in races where the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. Once completed, if the dif ferences in any of the races are 0.25 percentage points or below, a hand recount will be ordered. As the recount unfolded, Republicans urged their Democratic opponents to give up and allow the state to move on. Scott said Sunday that Nelson wants fraudulent ballots and those cast by noncitizens to count, pointing to a Nelson lawyer objecting to Palm Beach County’s rejection of one provisional ballot because it was cast by a noncitizen. “He is trying to commit fraud to win this election,” Scott told Fox News. “Bill Nelson’s a sore loser. He’s been in politics way too long.” Nelson’s campaign issued a statement Sunday say ing their lawyer wasn’t authorized to object to the ballot’s rejection as “Non citizens cannot vote in US elections.” Gillum and Nelson have argued each vote should be counted and the process allowed to take its course. Both the state elections divi sion, which Scott runs, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have said they have found no evi dence of voter fraud. That didn’t stop pro tests outside Snipes’ office, where a crowd of mostly Republicans gathered Sun day, holding signs, listening to country music and occa sionally chanting “lock her up,” referring to Snipes. A massive Trump 2020 flag flew over the parking lot and many members of a Bikers For Trump group wore matching shirts and carried flags, min gling among a crowd that included a protester wear ing a Hillary Clinton mask. Registered independent Russell Liddick, a 38-year- old retail worker from Pompano Beach carried a sign reading, “I’m not here for Trump! I’m here for fair elections! Fire Snipes!” He said the office’s prob lems “don’t make me feel very much like my vote counted.” Florida is also conducting a recount in a third state wide race. Democrat Nikki Fried had a 0.07 percentage point lead over Republican state Rep. Matt Caldwell in the race for agriculture commissioner, one of Flori da’s three Cabinet seats. From a distant glance, the recounts might dredge up memories of the 2000 presidential recount, when it took more than five weeks for Florida to declare George W. Bush the victor over Vice President A1 Gore by 537 votes, thus giving Bush the presidency. But much has changed since then. In 2000, each county had its own voting 835 Oak Street, Gainesville, Georgia http://lanier-hvac.net/ Cheapest Trane in Georgia. CALL US 678-943-1351 Your Comfort is Our Priority! system. Many used punch cards — voters poked out chads, leaving tiny holes in their ballots representing their candidates. Some vot ers, however, didn’t fully punch out the presidential chad or gave it just a little push. Those hanging and dim pled chads had to be exam ined by the canvassing boards, a lengthy, tiresome and often subjective process that became fodder for late- night comedians. Now the state requires that all Florida counties use ballots where voters use a pen to mark their candi date’s name, much like a student does when taking a multiple-choice test. It also now clearly mandates how the recount will proceed. Those ballots are now being run through scanning machines in each county for a second time under the watchful eye of representa tives of both parties and the campaigns. Any ballot that cannot be read for any of the recounted races will be put aside. If a race’s statewide margin falls below 0.25 percentage points after the machine count, the state will order a manual recount in each county. At that point, only the rejected ballots for that race will be exam ined by counting teams to determine if the voters’ intentions were obvious. For example, some voters circle the candidate’s name instead of filling in the bal lot properly and some cross out their vote and then mark another candidate. If either side objects to a counting team’s decision or the team can’t make one, the ballot will be forwarded to the county’s canvass ing board, with the three members voting on the final decision. The members are usually the county super visor of elections, a judge and the chair of the county commissioners. TALES A podcast series from She Stmes gainesvilletimes.com Honestly local. GHOSTS Learn about the ghosts who inhabit Gainesville from two believers, Kathy Amos and Gail Hogan, who claim to have experiences with at least three of them. Listen to all Hall Tales Podcast episodes here: www.gainesvilletimes.com/halltales
