In order for Democrats to finalize an alternative Senate nominee in Maine, Platner needs to officially withdraw from the race by 13 July at 5pm ET
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17m agoGraham Platner is planning on filing the official paperwork to end his Senate campaign on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter
31m agoShenna Bellows announces bid for US Senate after Platner suspends campaign
2h agoErika Kirk asks for all exhibits linked to husband’s killing to be made public
3h agoAnalysis: Platner debacle puts Democrats in grave danger of blowing the midterms
4h agoMaine: 'No official withdrawal notice has yet been received' from Graham Platner
5h agoFormer Olympian pleads not guilty in Washington reflecting pool damage case
5h agoJordan Wood announces bid for Senate after Platner suspends campaign
6h agoNirav Shah, former Maine CDC director, announces candidacy to replace Platner
9h agoMaine contenders: the Democrats who could replace Graham Platner
9h agoMaine Democrats plan convention to replace scandal-hit Graham Platner
The Maine department of the secretary of state has said that as of Thursday morning, “no official withdrawal notice has yet been received” from Graham Platner.
“As of now, no official withdrawal notice has yet been received from Mr. Platner,” Jana Spaulding, Maine’s deputy secretary of state for communications, said in a statement to the Guardian. “A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw to the Elections office in writing, including signature.”
Spaulding added that the notice may be received by email, such as a scanned letter attached as a PDF, but must include a signature.
In order for Democrats to finalize an alternative Senate nominee in Maine, Platner needs to officially withdraw from the race by 13 July at 5pm ET, according to state law. This would then grant Democrats a two-week window, until 5pm ET on 27 July, to pick a replacement.
It comes as Platner announced on Wednesday night that he was suspending his campaign following sexual assault allegations. But on Thursday, Maine’s department of the secretary of state said that “no official withdrawal notice has yet been received” from Platner.
“A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw to the Elections office in writing, including signature,” Jana Spaulding, Maine’s deputy secretary of state for communications, said in a statement to the Guardian earlier on Thursday.
Under state law, Platner has until Monday 13 July at 5pm ET to officially withdraw from the race, in order for Democrats to finalize an alternative Senate nominee in Maine.
Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state, has announced her candidacy to replace Platner as the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine.
In a statement posted online on Thursday afternoon, Bellows wrote: “The people of Maine have been building something real – a movement that deserves to go all the way to November.”
“I’ve spent my entire career taking on tough fights for working people, and I’m not stopping now” she said. “I’m running for United States Senate, and together we are going to defeat Susan Collins.”
Earlier this year, Bellows ran for governor, but finished in fourth place in the June Democratic primary for Governor. Earlier this week, Bellow called the allegations against Platner “extremely serious” and said “while Graham ignited a powerful movement to challenge the status quo, given the seriousness of the allegations, he needs to step down.”
A poll released on Thursday of just under 1,000 likely voters in Maine, conducted by Z to A Research, found the potential contest between Bellows and Collins, a Republican senator, at 47%-47%.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California who formerly endorsed Graham Platner, is endorsing Troy Jackson for US Senate in Maine.
“I am all in for Troy Jackson to continue the populist progressive movement in Maine,” Khanna said in a statement shared by a spokesperson for the Congressman. “He’s for Medicare for All, opposes foreign wars, and will be for workers over billionaires.”
New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, has sent a letter to the justice department demanding that they turn over unredacted records related to Jeffrey Epstein, arguing that the materials are needed “to identify survivors, witnesses, and co-conspirators” as the state conducts its criminal investigation into Epstein’s activities at the ranch Epstein formerly owned in Santa Fe county.
In a letter on Thursday, Torrez said that “despite verbal assurances of cooperation from the USDOJ, access to the requested records has not been granted, no substantive response has been provided, and more than 130 days have now elapsed since the NMDOJ’s initial request”.
“The NMDOJ views this length of time as an unreasonable delay under any rule of reason,” he added.
“The NMDOJ’s criminal investigation is once again active and is ongoing,” Torrez wrote. “The USDOJ’s continued withholding of unredacted records is causing real and escalating harm to the NMDOJ’s criminal investigation.”
Without unredacted records, Torrez said: “The identities of those who suffered abuse at the hands of Epstein’s network in New Mexico remain hidden behind government redactions – survivors who may not know that New Mexico is actively seeking to find them, hear them, and pursue justice on their behalf. Investigators cannot identify corroborating witnesses – the staff, the associates, the individuals present at Zorro Ranch – whose accounts are essential to substantiating survivor testimony and constructing the evidentiary foundation any prosecution requires.”
“Every day that the USDOJ withholds these records, the foundation upon which a New Mexico prosecution could be built erodes,” Torrez said. “Witnesses relocate and become unreachable. Memories, already strained by years of trauma, fade further. Physical and documentary evidence degrades, is lost, or is rendered more difficult to authenticate with the passage of time.”
The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Erika Kirk, the widow of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk, has asked a judge in Utah to allow the open courtroom display of every exhibit relating to her husband’s killing, saying she fears the proliferation of conspiracy theories.
Kirk’s motion came on the third day of a preliminary hearing in Provo at which the district judge Tony Graf will decide if there is sufficient evidence to move ahead with a trial for Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson, in a shooting at Utah Valley University last September.
In the three-page filing, Erika Kirk complained that some items of evidence were admitted into court but not made available for viewing, which her lawyer Jeffrey Neiman said breached a Utah law affording crime victims and their lawful representatives certain rights.
The air force has canceled the promotions of dozens of service members after discovering what it said was a grading error in a test of their security knowledge.
The “isolated and highly unprecedented anomaly” was announced in a press release on Tuesday, which said 135 airmen and women had been awarded incorrect scores on the security forces specialty knowledge test (SKT) and been wrongly informed they had earned promotion.
Senior officers blamed the error on an “outdated scoring key”, and said the group that was subsequently told they had not made the cut would be replaced by 135 others after the service completed a rescore of all 2,285 candidates who sat the exam.
Two years ago Democrats had one job: stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House. It was the only thing that mattered, but with breathtaking political malpractice, they imploded.
This November Democrats have two jobs: win the House of Representatives and win the Senate to turn Trump into a lame duck president for his final two years. But once again the party, fond of warning that the stakes are existential, is in grave danger of blowing it.
On Wednesday the Democratic candidate Graham Platner said he was withdrawing from the Senate race in Maine after a woman who dated him said he drunkenly forced her to have sex despite her telling him to stop. Platner denies the allegation reported by Politico.
This is a disaster because every seat counts in the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a narrow 53-47 majority. The electoral map is not favourable to Democrats this time but, riding anti-Trump sentiment, it’s just possible they could pull it off and become a vital check on the president’s power.
Who is to blame for this debacle? The list is long.
The Palm Beach international airport in Florida has officially been renamed the President Donald J Trump international airport.
On Thursday, the airport announced that the name has officially been changed, effective today and said that the airport is “officially in transition mode” and that they are “working behind the scenes to update our physical signage, terminal spaces, and digital channels to our new name”.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also announced on Thursday that Palm Beach international airport’s three-letter location identifier has changed from “PBI” to “DJT” following the airport’s official renaming to “Donald J Trump International Airport.”
“FAA systems and publications reflect the new identifier,” the FAA said. “Pilots, air traffic controllers, and aviation stakeholders should use DJT for flight planning and operations.”
According to Reuters, the airport has said that the name change cost $5.5m.
Eric Trump, the president’s middle son, said on Thursday morning: “I am deeply honored that at 5:01 am, Trump Force One will be the first plane to land at the newly renamed Palm Beach International Airport – now and forever President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT).”
“Congratulations Dad – I’m happy to have played a big role in making this happen,” he wrote in the statement.
Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who represents Maryland’s eighth congressional district in the US House of Representatives, has released a statement in support of David Hearn, the former Olympic canoeist who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
“Davey Hearn is my constituent, a native-born resident of Montgomery county, a three-time Olympian canoeist, and a famed and celebrated teacher and coach of canoeing and kayaking in our community,” Raskin said. “He is beloved in my district as a model citizen whether on water or on dry land. He is a great guy.”
Hearn, Raskin said, “would never desecrate a federal building or landmark by writing his name on it or affixing his name illegally to it or engaging in any other kind of political graffiti, vandalism or delinquency” and would “never intentionally damage government property”.
Raskin added: “I hope – and will do everything I can to guarantee – that Davey gets true due process and a fair trial on these absurdly trumped-up charges. It is only a matter of time before an impartial judge and jury recognize that this case has been built on a Kafkaesque arrest and Orwellian charges.”
On Thursday morning, Hearn pleaded not guilty, and his next hearing is on 5 August.
US politics live with Shrai Popat
