More Republican lawmakers are showing their support for President-elect Joe Biden. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) both called for the Biden transition to begin. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) congratulated Biden, saying in a statement, "President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania."
Lincoln Project co-founder Jennifer Horn told Cheddar on Monday that these decisions, while important, should have happened two weeks ago. "Make no mistake there are no heroes in the Republican Party today."
"The Republican Party has unfortunately abandoned any sense of character or integrity when it comes to this election," Horn said.
The Lincoln Project is a PAC formed by current and former Republican heavyweights against President Donald Trump and the current direction of the GOP.
The group is now turning its attention to Georgia where two crucial Senate races are in runoffs that could tip the scale for the Senate majority. While Republican candidates may worry about doing anything to alienate Trump's supporters before those elections, Horn said, "We also have to remember that Georgia is a very high bar for Democrats to win. It's going to be an extremely difficult race. [That] does not mean at all that it's impossible."
Looking beyond Georgia or even the day Trump leaves office, Horn and the Lincoln Project's work will be far from over. Trump has fundamentally altered the Republican Party, she said, giving it a rock-solid foundation, despite the controversial platform that earned it. Under Trump, Horn noted that the GOP has become "a party that is as close to authoritarianism as we have ever seen in the history of our country." She expects a day of reckoning for the party and says eventually the party will have to make a choice.
"At some point, if the Republican Party wants to be a serious, influential, leading voice in American politics, they're going to have to eventually choose between Trumpism and democracy, Trumpism and America, Trumpism and the Constitution."
Horn is familiar with the inner workings of the GOP, having worked as the chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party in 2013 before she left and helped launch the Lincoln Project. She has repeatedly called for Republicans to stand up against the president but acknowledges that many are afraid to anger his powerful supporters.
"There is no path that I can see for the Republican Party going forward unless they are willing to fully denounce both the damage that Donald Trump has caused in this country and the role that they have played in allowing that to happen," Horn added. "I don't see them doing that anytime soon."
Cheddar Politics takes a deeper look at the takeaways from the Georgia primary elections on Tuesday. Georgia Public Broadcasting's local and state politics reporter, Stephen Fowler, joins us to discuss the limits of Trump endorsements and break down what the outcome in each race means.
After learning that the suspect in the Uvalde school shooting posted about his intentions on Facebook, activists are urging social networks to make changes. Lena Derhally, a licensed psychotherapist and author of "The Facebook Narcissist," joined Cheddar News to discuss the role social media plays in school shootings. "They're not really invested in taking down hateful content," she said about social platforms."In regards to the shooting, it was 15 minutes before that actual threat. It would be pretty hard for a social media company to trace that threat that quickly. But what they can do better is take down threats and hateful content much faster and more than they're doing now."
Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
The average city in California has a 38% higher cost of living than the average American city, according to a cost of living index. For many, the general minimum wage of $15/hour just doesn't cut it. Anti-poverty activist Joe Sanberg wants to get the minimum wage changed to $18/hour. He joins Cheddar News to discuss the Living Wage Act of 2022.
