Gov. Doug Ducey, challenger Ken Bennett meet for first time before Arizona GOP primary

Richard Ruelas | Arizona Republic | 12 hours ago

In what will likely be their only face-to-face discussion of policy issues before the Republican primary election, Gov. Doug Ducey and his challenger, former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, exchanged polite verbal jabs Friday during a meeting with The Arizona Republic editorial board.

The two discussed the fate of the U.S. Senate seat held by John McCain, who is fighting brain cancer. It is the issue that Ducey had said invalidated Bennett as a candidate and made him unworthy of a debate.

Ducey has declined to debate Bennett at two forums next week: one co-hosted by The Republic and Arizona PBS, and another sponsored by the Clean Elections Commission.

Bennett, in a Tweet sent in May, said that he would not appoint Cindy McCain, the wife of Arizona’s senior senator, to the seat should it become vacant.

Ducey reiterated on Friday that Bennett's remark was out of bounds.

"Have you ever seen anything more disgraceful than the way Ken Bennett has handled the issue?" he said to the editorial board. "I think it is very revealing and embarrassing."

Ducey said Bennett has been quoted saying he raised the issue "because it has political advantage to him."

Bennett said that he did not mean to disrespect McCain. He said he was travelling from Prescott to Phoenix and heard stories on the radio that reported a deal had already been struck that would have Ducey appointing Cindy McCain to the seat. He said he sent the Tweet responding to those stories.

"I just don't believe our U.S. Senate positions are family heirlooms," Bennett said.

Bennett said he was pulling for Sen. McCain to recover, mentioning that his own father was diagnosed with cancer around the time McCain was. "I did not intend that as disrespect to McCain in any way," he said.

On Thursday, and again Friday, Bennett posted on Twitter that McCain had not been heard from in person for 221 days and urged him to resign, saying Arizona needed two active Senators.

"Step up to the mic or step down Senator," he wrote.

More:

https://amp.azcentral.com/amp/853231002

Jim Jordan wants to radically change the power structure in the House

Chris Pandolfo · July 27, 2018

A day after announcing he will run for speaker of the House of Representatives after the November election, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., was interviewed on “Fox & Friends” to discuss his candidacy for leadership.

Jordan highlighted many of the successes of the Trump administration, including tax cuts and regulatory reform, but pointed to many of Congress’ failures as evidence that a change in leadership is needed.

“Repeal Obamacare, reform welfare, build the border security wall, fix our immigration system, and control spending — we haven’t done that,” Jordan said.

“I think this is real simple,” he added. “We make the job of being a member of Congress way too difficult. It’s really basic. What did you tell the voters you were going to do? Let’s do that.”

Jordan was asked how, as a Freedom Caucus conservative, he planned to win the support of moderate Republicans to be elected speaker.

“Right now, there’s just a handful of people at the top who make all the decisions, and that’s not fair to the 435 members of the Congress, not fair to the 240 members of the Republican conference,” Jordan said.

“We all represent three-quarters of a million people, and when you’ve got a couple people at the top making all the decisions … that is not how the place is supposed to work.”

As an example, he mentioned how there are nine committee chairmanships that will be opened up next year for new members of Congress. He argued that the members on those committees, not a handful of leaders at the top, should be empowered to pick their committee chairmen.

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/jim-jordan-wants-to-radically-change-the-power-structure-in-the-house/

Bannon Sets Up For EU Showdown With George Soros

Steve Bannon plans to lead a populist revolt throughout Europe which, if successful, will crush George Soros and his network of open-border NGO's to smithereens, according to the Daily Beast.

And just how does the former White House chief strategist and Goldman Sachs alum plan to do this?

Bannon will set up a Brussels-based non-profit NGO called "The Movement" which will go head to head with Soros - with the goal of uniting like-minded European parties and various conservative think tanks along with other support structures.

The non-profit will be a central source of polling, advice on messaging, data targeting, and think-tank research for a ragtag band of right-wingers who are surging all over Europe, in many cases without professional political structures or significant budgets.

Bannon’s ambition is for his organization ultimately to rival the impact of Soros’s Open Society, which has given away $32 billion to largely liberal causes since it was established in 1984.

Over the past year, Bannon has held talks with right-wing groups across the continent from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen’s Front National (recently renamed Rassemblement National) in the West, to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East. -Daily Beast

In other words, everyone who doesn't like largely unchecked human trafficking of migrants into Europe via Soros-funded NGOs which operate throughout the Mediterranean.

Bannon is looking to establish a populist stronghold within European Parliament which could gain as many as a third of the lawmakers following next May's Europe-wide elections. As the Beast points out, "A united populist bloc of that size would have the ability to seriously disrupt parliamentary proceedings, potentially granting Bannon huge power within the populist movement."

Depending on electoral law in individual countries, the foundation may be able to take part in some campaigns directly while bolstering other populist groups indirectly. -Daily Beast

“I didn't get the idea until Marine Le Pen invited me to speak at Lille at the Front National,” recalled Bannon. “I said, ‘What do you want me say?’”

Le Pen responded: “All you have to say is, ‘We're not alone.’”

While The Movement is in its infancy, the wheels are already in motion to hire a full-time staff of at least 10 for Bannon's Brussels, Belgium headquarters in coming months - including a polling expert, a communications person, an office manager and a researcher. If all goes according to plan, the organization will grow to 25 people post-2019.

More:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-28/bannon-sets-eu-showdown-george-soros