NPR Employees Accuse Company of Racism Amid Mass Layoffs

Molly Bruns
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NPR Employees Accuse Company of Racism Amid Mass Layoffs

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) National Public Radio recently announced it is cutting back its staff by 10%, leading many of the employees to for woke reason accuse the media group of racism.

According to the Daily Wire, 84 employees were laid off last week and several seasonal podcasts, such as Invisibilia, Louder Than a Riot and Rough Translation were cancelled. The sudden staff cuts followed a projected $30 million shortfall in sponsorships for 2023.

Several high-level executives attended a virtual meeting to answer questions, including CEO John Lansing, who received the brunt of the disgruntled employees’ anger.

One employee called out Lansing for the lack of marketing support for specific podcasts, and questioned why lower-level employees were being punished for these high-level decisions. The employee also named specific executives who previously promised to increase their commitment to diversity but put no accountability measures in place to track the organization’s metrics.

Lansing responded angrily, defending his executive team and pointing to the group’s mission statement.

“I would never, ever, on your worst day, call you out by name in a meeting with 827 people,” he said. “Let’s please keep in mind nobody is happy about this. Nobody is more unhappy about it than those affected, but certainly, everybody in the company, beginning with me, this is the last thing we wanted to do.”

In response, NPR employees accused the CEO of “tone-policing,” making them feel uncomfortable and using civility to make the people of color on the call feel targeted.

“Civility is a weapon wielded by the powerful,” one person wrote, according to screenshots of the chat.

“This meeting has made me more afraid for the future of public media than any conversation I have had in a very long time,” wrote another.

NPR is in the midst of some external struggles as well, with Twitter CEO Elon Musk labeling the taxpayer-funded media group as  “state-affiliated media,” placing the news outlet in the same class as Russia Today and China’s Global Times.

STUDY: ‘Long Covid’ Likely Just Young People’s Lack of Exercise, Loneliness

Molly Bruns
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STUDY: ‘Long Covid’ Likely Just Young People’s Lack of Exercise, Loneliness

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A recent study revealed that so-called “long COVID” is largely a myth and young people’s symptoms are usually due to lack of exercise and personal communication.

The Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open followed hundreds of young people, ages 12-25, in Norway. Subjects received COVID testing at the beginning of a six-month period, and again at the end.

According to Just the News, researchers from Norway, Sweden, England, China and Australia noted no significant differences between infected and uninfected test subjects who showed symptoms for long COVID.

The researchers concluded that young people who experienced a “significant increase in mental distress” throughout the pandemic are likely suffering from something other than long COVID.

“What you can see is that the fatigue and neuroticism and emotional maladjustment and loneliness and depression are all linked” when they are plotted out, epidemiologist Vinay Prasad wrote in his newsletter. “What you also see is that none of this has anything to do with prior COVID-19.”

The study also revealed that despite the government’s best efforts to brand the alleged disease as a danger, the real danger has little to do with actual illness.

“[Long COVID] was not associated with biological markers specific to viral infection, but with initial symptom severity,” the report on the study read. “Low physical activity” and “loneliness” were two common denominators, along with specific “personality traits.”

For a time, long COVID appeared to be a “mass disabling event;” however, this and other studies reveal that the symptoms are not as serious or common as originally anticipated.

Despite this fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not reneged long COVID’s classification as a “physical disorder” that “causes crippling fatigue that may last a lifetime.”

In a recent virtual seminar CDC’s chief of chronic viral diseases, Elizabeth Unger, discussed the organization’s long COVID program where she claimed 80% of the population could have the disease.

When fears of long COVID first surfaced, the National Institutes of Health received $1.15 billion in funding to address the issue.

Francis Collins, director of NIH at the time, said his team of scientists would study “the underlying biological cause of these prolonged symptoms,” and “enhance our knowledge of basic biology of how humans recover from infection.”

Long COVID is classified as “post-infective fatigue syndrome” by the JAMA Network Open study, which occurs in the aftermath of many diseases.

Corrupt Ex-FBI Deputy McCabe Calls Trump’s 34 Fake Felony Charges a ‘Disappointment’

Corine Gatti
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Corrupt Ex-FBI Deputy McCabe Calls Trump’s 34 Fake Felony Charges a ‘Disappointment’

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe dubbed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictments against former President Donald Trump a “disappointment” because it’s doomed to fail.

 “I if I had to characterize it, it’s a disappointment,” McCabe, who was fired by Trump in 2018, told CNN.

“I think everyone was hoping we would see more about the direction that they intend to take this prosecution. What is the legal theory that ties that very solid misdemeanor case, 34 counts of misdemeanors to the intent to conceal another crime, which is what makes it a felony?” McCabe told dispirited CNN talking heads. 

“It’s simply isn’t there. Now, it’s possible that the DA has an elaborate and solid theory that’s backed up by a lot of evidence, and he has just decided to conceal that at this point,” he noted. “At the end of the day, if all of our legal friends read this indictment and don’t see a way to have a felony, it’s hard to imagine convincing a jury that they should get there.”

After Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday, the “mystery felony charge” in the indictment was not mentioned. With 34 counts of misdemeanor charges that can be stacked to a felony to conceal another crime, Bragg conveniently left out what the phantom felony charge is — leaving a lot of openings for Trump’s legal team to attack. 

“You heard the defense lawyers, I think rightly, complaining about that,” Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst said. “The whole purpose of an indictment is to serve notice on the defendant of what exactly you’re charged with, and what exactly you’re going to be defending yourself against. There are documents. They do corroborate the fact that money was paid, but they don’t necessarily show Donald Trump’s exact involvement in it.” 

Trump pleaded “not guilty” on Tuesday to the 34 felony counts brought against him. These accusations allege that he was falsifying business records to cover up a scandal surrounding his 2016 campaign and a hush money payment of $130,000 to Michael Cohen to silence Stormy Daniels. Ironically, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday awarded Trump $121,962.56 in attorney’s fees from Daniels.

The courts have set a date for President Trump’s legal proceedings on Dec. 4 — two months before the start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary calendar.

Fla. Grand Jury Charges Biden Admin. w/ Trafficking, Abusing Migrant Children

Molly Bruns
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Fla. Grand Jury Charges Biden Admin. w/ Trafficking, Abusing Migrant Children

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A grand jury in the state of Florida officially accused the Biden administration of assisting in trafficking child refugees into the state.

Following a five-month investigation ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the panel’s report condemned the entire Biden administration, but particularly the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.

According to the Daily Wire, the report alleged that HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement was neglecting and abusing migrant children while operating under the pretense of trying to resettle them illegally in the country.

“In reality, ORR is facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children, and some of our fellow Florida residents are (in some cases unwittingly) funding and incentivizing it for primarily economic reasons,” the report stated. “If any resident of Florida exposed U.S.-born children to this process, they would be justifiably arrested for child neglect or worse.”

Coyotes and human smugglers often abandon their young clientèle after crossing into the U.S.

“This process exposes children to horrifying health conditions, constant criminal threat, labor and sex trafficking, robbery, rape, and other experiences not done justice by mere words,” the panel stated.

The report contained both video evidence and testimonials by witnesses, though their relationship to the problem is unknown.

Investigators attempted to subpoena several non-governmental organizations in a search for evidence, but they hit several dead ends due to the NGOs’ fear of losing government funding if they cooperated.

One organization told the panel that it would rather operate an illegal migrant child placement facility without a license than risk losing its federal funding.

ORR has a history of discouraging employees who question the process.

“One was fired for reporting a case of suspected human trafficking … to a government hotline because her ORR superiors refused to investigate the matter,” the report said.

DeSantis initially called for the investigation after reports that the ORR secretly flew large numbers of illegal immigrants at night to hubs throughout the U.S., many of them in red states where Democrats hope to dramatically alter the demographics.

“During a six-month period in 2021, more than 7 [large commercial passenger jets] landed at the international airport in Jacksonville,” the report said.

“These flights arrived in the night time often after midnight, and landed not at the passenger terminal, but instead at an out-of-the-way commercial terminal used normally for shipping freight, away from police facilities and miles from the passenger terminal,” the grand-jury report said.

Passengers got onto buses and then transported to other, unknown locations.

“If an operation were ferrying terrorists or large quantities of narcotics, this is what it would look like,” the report said.

Unionized Dem. Fundraising Platform ActBlue to Cut Nearly 20% of Workforce

Robert Jonathan
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Unionized Dem. Fundraising Platform ActBlue to Cut Nearly 20% of Workforce

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) The Democrat establishment publicly champions organized labor, and the job protections that come with it, but that didn’t stop a left-wing major fundraising platform from laying off nearly 20% of its workforce. 

Political donation aggregator ActBlue, which reportedly raked in a staggering $3.5 billion-plus for Democrat candidates and allied groups in the 2022 election cycle alone, explained that the reduction in force was necessary for “long-term financial sustainability” heading into the next election season, and those to follow, a press release from the organization indicated.

Relatively new CEO Regina Wallace-Jones asserted in the statement that she expects “strong fundraising to continue.”

Those being shown the door in the 17% layoff are vaguely described as working “on the non-technical side” and are set to received two months’ severance from ActBlue, which is a nonprofit organization.

In an eight-part Twitter thread, the ActBlue union implied that progressive poseurs in management were hardly setting a good example for the Left.

“We call upon Leadership to freeze further layoffs until all other cost-saving options are exhausted [and] for ActBlue Leadership to live up to their progressive ideals,” the union tweeted, in part.

Ironically in the ideological context, union negotiations had dragged on for two years before the ratification of a collective bargaining agreement, which has been in place for a mere two months.

Union dues have traditionally filled the Democrat coffers, and union members participate extensively in their get-out-the-vote efforts.

According to the ActBlue union, the layoff earlier this week eliminated 54 jobs, of which 32 were the bargaining unit.

The union also seemed to accuse “out of touch” higher-ups of an unwillingness to accept a pay cut in their own salaries to save the jobs of rank-and-file employees amidst the organization’s “current financial difficulties.”

Returning to the theme, the union insisted that “Prioritizing executive profit over rank and file workers’ livelihoods does not live up to ActBlue’s progressive values.”

About seven million individual donors supposedly forked over the billions that ActBlue collected in 2022.

However, an expose by former Project Veritas boss James O’Keefe calls into question the possibility about the way megadonors might have circumvented federal campaign finance law.

In an initial late-March video, O’Keefe, the journalist who now runs the eponymous and cleverly named O’Keefe Media Group (OMG, for short), interviewed some senior citizens in Maryland who made thousands of donations to the Biden presidential campaign and other candidates, much of it through ActBlue.

The plot twist was that the donations were made unbeknownst to them, however, suggesting perhaps that a money-laundering scheme used their identities.

O’Keefe has encouraged the crowd-sourcing of further investigations into this matter.

Even back in 2020, doubt was already surfacing over the allegedly sketchy way ActBlue may have operated.

A conservative group called the Take Back Action Fund analyzed 2019 Federal Election Commission data and discovered that almost half of ActBlue donations apparently came from jobless individuals or those who left the employer field blank.

“That figure has risen to 50.1% in the first eight months of 2020, said Take Back president John Pudner, who has for years sounded the alarm about the potential for foreign influence on ActBlue over what he described as its lax online credit card security measures,” the Washington Times reported in September 2020.

REPORT: IRS, FBI Buying ‘Netflow’ Data to Spy on People’s Private Internet Use

Ken Silva
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REPORT: IRS, FBI Buying ‘Netflow’ Data to Spy on People’s Private Internet Use

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) After beefing up its staff by some 87,000 employees, the IRS is now in the market for some new high-tech internet monitoring equipment, according to Treasury Department procurement records.

The documents show that the IRS is seeking a bundle of internet and cybersecurity services that includes a subscription with Team Cymru, a cybersecurity company that provides its clients access to “netflow” data, which can show activity such as which server communicated with another. This would allow the IRS to monitor people who use VPNs or other privacy tools.

Vice’s tech publication, Motherboard, first covered the Treasury Department documents in a Tuesday article, noting that the FBI and Pentagon have also purchased netflow data from Team Cymru.

Indeed, Motherboard reported last September that “multiple branches of the U.S. military have bought access to a powerful internet monitoring tool that claims to cover over 90 percent of the world’s internet traffic, and which in some cases provides access to people’s email data, browsing history, and other information such as their sensitive internet cookies.”

Last month, Motherboard reported that the FBI’s cyber division uses Team Cymru—leading Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to raise concern about the matter.

Wyden reportedly said the FBI’s use of Team Cymru “provides further evidence the FBI has purchased internet metadata, which can reveal the websites Americans visit, as well as sensitive information such as what doctor a person sees, their religion or what dating sites they use.”

It’s not clear how the IRS would use netflow data or other internet surveillance tools. The IRS and Team Cymru have both reportedly declined to comment.

However, the Biden administration has expressed a desire to make sure it can tax every penny from online transactions. Critics have warned that this could spell the end of financial privacy.

“Some may argue that privacy is unnecessary because you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide,” the Foundation for Economic Education noted last year after Biden announced plans to require financial institutions to report all transactions of $600 or more.

“But, again, individuals cannot be expected to perfectly comply with a document of unspecified length,” added FEE. “Unfortunately, as the government approaches perfect information, perfect compliance becomes the standard.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Stormy Daniels Owes $122K for Trump Legal Bills in Defamation Case

Jacob Bruns
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Stormy Daniels Owes $122K for Trump Legal Bills in Defamation Case

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) A federal appeals court in California ruled Tuesday that former porn star Stormy Daniels must pay $122,000 in legal fees to cover the expenses of former President Donald Trump in a spurious defamation lawsuit, the Washington Times reported.

A commissioner for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump’s attorneys “reasonably spent” more than 183 hours on an appeal of the case, which Daniels demanded in her prior lawsuit against Trump.

The commissioner denied a request for another $5,150 on the ground that it was not properly itemized.

The courtroom victory came as a welcome breath of air for Trump and his supporters as corrupt prosecutors wage a protracted lawfare battle against the 2024 GOP frontrunner for president—including a dubious criminal case related to Trump’s alleged hush-money payments to Daniels and ex-Playboy bunny Karen McDougal.

On Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts after his politically charged arrest in New York City at the behest of George Soros-backed District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has moved forward despite the federal prosecutors’ past decision not to pursue charges against Trump on the grounds of the case’s weakness.

Daniels–whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford–has claimed on numerous occasions that she had an affair with Trump in 2006. She also says that he paid her $130,000 in a hush-money nondisclosure agreement leading up to the 2016 election.

After Trump called her allegations a “total con job,” Daniels sued Trump for defamation, but the case was thrown out by a judge in 2018.

In sum, Daniels has reportedly been ordered to pay over $600,000 in legal fees to the former President, including a massive $300,000 lump sum in attorney’s fees last year.

Trump, after the ruling, called the suit “a purely political stunt that never should have started, or allowed to happen,” noting that he was “pleased that my lawyers were able to bring it to a successful conclusion after the court fully rejected her appeal.”

“Now all I have to do is wait for all of the money she owes me,” he added.

But Daniels promised last year after a previous order was released, “I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”

Cash App Founder Stabbed to Death in Criminal Cesspool San Francisco

Jacob Bruns
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Cash App Founder Stabbed to Death in Criminal Cesspool San Francisco

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) As San Francisco and other deep-blue cities find themselves overrun with violent criminals, even wealthy elites are no longer safe from the scourge.

On Tuesday morning, Bob Lee, founder of Cash App and the former chief technology officer of Square, was found dead after being stabbed just blocks from San Francisco’s trendy waterfront Embarcadero district, Fox News reported.

Lee, 43, was attacked at approximately 2:35 a.m., according to a San Francisco Police Department report. He was alive when police arrived on the scene and was rushed to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

The SFPD investigation is underway. No arrests have been made.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner has yet to identify the victim, but Lee’s friends have confirmed his death.

Lee achieved much in the tech world prior to his death, including helping Google found Android, helping found Square–a payment company that would later be renamed Block–and creating Cash App.

He also invested in tech startups, including SpaceX, Clubhouse, Tile, Figma, Faire, Orchid, Addressable, Nana, Ticket Fairy, Gowalla, Asha, SiPhox, Netswitch and Found, according to Fox News.

Several big names in the tech industry expressed their condolences and shared their personal grief.

“It’s real. Getting calls. Heartbreaking,” wrote former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey via the platform Snort.

Dorsey was joined by Figma CEO Dylan Field.

Lee’s death is the latest in a long string of violence that is occurring in San Francisco, which is so overrun that even Ukrainians are saying that they want to go home.

The woke city has also been plagued by epidemics of public defecation and homelessness, both of which have filled the city with trash and stench.

San Francisco also announced plans in January to begin offering publicly funded “overdose development centers,” where people can take hard drugs in a “safe space.”

“We are committed to opening overdose prevention sites in San Francisco, but due to legal restrictions, there remain significant challenges,” Mayor London Breed said, alluding to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opposition to the movement.

“Despite that, we are continuing to work with our nonprofit partners to find creative ways to open these sites, and these steps are critical for that to happen,” Breed said.

Expected Seat-Flip Would Give N.C. Republicans a Super-Majority

Editor 1
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Expected Seat-Flip Would Give N.C. Republicans a Super-Majority

(Headline USA) Speculation is rising in the North Carolina legislature that a Democrat is about to switch parties and give Republicans a complete veto-proof majority in the General Assembly, a move that could affect legislation on immigration, abortion and voting.

The GOP scheduled a Wednesday news conference at party headquarters with Rep. Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County.

House Speaker Tim Moore said Tuesday that Cotham and chamber leaders will “make a major announcement.”

If the Democrat does switch parties, it would be a major political setback for Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and allies in their attempts to block conservative initiatives during the governor’s final two years in office.

It could make it easier for Republicans to enact bills that would force sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration agents and prevent counting absentee ballots received after Election Day.

The GOP is also debating if and how to place further restrictions on abortion after Cooper pledged to make the mostly-red state a de-facto sanctuary for abortion-seekers from neighboring Southern states that have already enacted heartbeat laws and other bans.

While Republicans already hold the 30 Senate seats needed to override vetoes, they have been one seat shy of a similar advantage in the House since the November elections. Cooper made preventing supermajorities his top campaign priority last fall.

Cotham, a former teacher and assistant principal, served in the House for nearly 10 years through 2016 before returning in January.

She sat at a new desk surrounded by Republicans on the House floor for the late Tuesday afternoon session. Staff members earlier took her belongings from her previous desk, which had adjoined those of other veteran House Democrats.

Cotham left after the floor session ended without taking reporters’ questions and didn’t respond to a text message. Her Twitter account “liked” a post that welcomed her to the House GOP caucus.

Moore declined comment Tuesday when asked whether Cotham was switching parties. Cotham’s voter registration information on the State Board of Elections website late Tuesday listed her as a Democrat.

Republicans have been advancing legislation this year that in previous years Cooper successfully vetoed. Until now, the governor has had enough Democratic votes to uphold vetoes if the party members showed up and voted together.

Last week, the Legislature successfully overrode one of Cooper’s vetoes for the first time since 2018 and approved a bill that in part eliminated the state’s pistol permit purchase system.

Cooper has stopped short of vetoing three other bills this year on topics that he vetoed in 2021. He didn’t sign this year’s measures, but rather allowed them to become law without his signature.

Cotham was one of three House Democrats who were absent last week during the override votes on the gun bill. The absences meant Republicans were able to meet the three-fifths majority threshold necessary to complete the override and advance their agenda.

Cotham said later that day that while she didn’t support the permit repeal, she had informed both parties she would be absent for the vote, citing a scheduled hospital treatment.

She and other absent Democrats took criticism for what happened, leading at least one left-leaning group to announce plans to “hold them accountable” in 2024.

News of Cotham’s potential party switch led some Democratic leaders to call on her to resign from the House instead, saying voters elected her based on her support as a Democrat. It’s unclear whether her views have changed.

Separately, Cooper said Cotham’s apparent party switch was a “disappointing decision.”

Her votes on “women’s reproductive freedom, election laws, LGBTQ rights and strong public schools will determine the direction of the state we love,” Cooper said in a news release.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Leftist Gain Majority Control of Wisc. Supreme Court in Crucial Race

Editor 1
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Leftist Gain Majority Control of Wisc. Supreme Court in Crucial Race

(Headline USA) With Wisconsin’s far-left governor, Tony Evers, helping to push the state won in 2016 by Republican Donald Trump farther into the blue column, Republicans in the crucial battleground state met with another brutal loss Tuesday, ceding control of the state Supreme Court.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz, 60, defeated former Justice Dan Kelly, in a race that included allegations of her bribing voters and receiving partisan kickbacks from the Democratic Party, despite the supposed nonpartisan nature of the race.

Her victory ensures that leftists will take over majority control of the court for the first time in 15 years with the fate of the state’s abortion ban and its election integrity on the line.

It was seen as a must-win for activist groups like Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which helped oversee earlier pro-Democrat gerrymandering efforts that led to the ouster of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

Although the state’s other prominent Republican lawmaker, Sen. Ron Johnson, recently won his re-election bid, the transfer of power on the court is likely to make his and other Republicans’ political prospects all the more tenuous in a narrowly-split chamber in which every seat-flip matters. And it may take Wisconsin out of the swing-state category in the 2024 presidential election.

The state saw rampant vote fraud in five major cities during the 2020 election, including Detroit, Green Bay and Racine County. It also has been at the forefront of several criminal-justice matters, including the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Kenosha and the case of Christmas parade killer Darrell Brooks Jr. in Waukesha.

In a jubilant scene at her victory party, the other three liberal justices on the court joined Protasiewicz on the stage and raised their arms in celebration.

Protasiewicz tried to downplay the importance of abortion as an issue in her victory, even though she and her allies, including an array of pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, made it the focus of much of her advertising and messaging to voters.

“It was really about saving our democracy, getting away from extremism and having a fair and impartial court where everybody gets a fair shot in the courtroom,” Protasiewicz told the Associated Press after her win. “That’s what it was all about.”

The new court controlled 4-3 by liberals is expected to decide a pending lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 law banning abortion enacted a year after statehood.

Protasiewicz said during the campaign that she supports abortion but stopped short of saying how she would rule on the lawsuit. She had called Kelly an “extreme partisan” who would vote to uphold the ban.

In addition to abortion, Protasiewicz’s win is likely to impact the future of Republican-drawn legislative maps, voting rights and years of other GOP policies. It will also ensure that liberals will have the majority leading up to the 2024 presidential election and immediately after.

Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point. Trump turned to the courts in 2020 in his unsuccessful challenge to his roughly 21,000-vote loss in the state.

The current court, under a 4-3 conservative majority, came within one vote of overturning President Joe Biden’s win in the state in 2020, and both major parties are preparing for another close race in 2024.

Kelly is a former justice who has also performed work for Republicans and advised them on a plan to have alternate GOP electors cast their ballots for Trump following the 2020 election even though Trump had lost.

Ahead of the vote, Protasiewicz called Kelly “a true threat to our democracy” because of his advising on the election challenges.

Kelly had expressed opposition to abortion in the past, including in a 2012 blog post in which he said the Democratic Party and the National Organization for Women were committed to normalizing the taking of human life. He also had done legal work for Wisconsin Right to Life.

Kelly was appointed to the state Supreme Court by then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2016. He served four years before being defeated in 2020 on the same ballot as the Democratic presidential primary. Kelly was endorsed by Trump that year.

Trump did not endorse this year. Protasiewicz’s endorsements included Hillary Clinton.

Kelly tried to distance himself from his work for Republicans, saying it was “irrelevant” to how he would work as a justice.

He tried to make the campaign about Protasiewicz’s record as a judge, arguing that she was soft on crime and accusing her of being “bought and paid for” by Democrats.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party gave Protasiewicz’s campaign more than $8 million, leading her to promise to recuse herself from any case brought by the party.

Protasiewicz said that while she anticipates many of the issues raised in the campaign will come before the court in the coming years, she pledged to be impartial and not beholden to Democrats and her far-left backers, who poured an unprecedented amount of money into the race.

“I’ve told everybody on the entire time that I was running, despite the fact that I was sharing my personal values, every single decision that I will render will be rooted in the law,” she said. “And that is the bottom line. They’re independent and rooted in the law.”

Kelly, in a statement after his loss, said Protasiewicz “made her campaign about cynical appeals to political passions, serial lies, and a blatant disregard for judicial ethics and the integrity of the court.”

“I wish Wisconsin the best of luck,” he said. “I think it will need it.”

Protasiewicz was an outspoken critic of Wisconsin’s legislative maps, calling them “rigged.” Kelly accused her of prejudging that case, abortion and others that could come before the court.

The state Supreme Court upheld Republican-drawn maps in 2022. Those maps have helped Republicans hold the state Legislature with near supermajority levels, even as Democrats—fueled by vote fraud in the five major cities—have won statewide elections, including Evers as governor in both 2018 and 2022 and President Joe Biden in 2020.

Protasiewicz will serve a 10-year term starting in August replacing retiring conservative Justice Pat Roggensack.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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