by Dave Williams | Oct 21, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Georgia man has been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted the counting of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election.
Cylester Maxwell, 42, of Alpharetta was taken into custody in Georgia on Friday and charged with assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon and civil disorder, both felonies. He also faces misdemeanor charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and engaging in physical violence in a Capitol building or grounds.
According to court records, Maxwell was identified in video footage marching with a crowd of rioters away from the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse toward the Capitol building. Maxwell then entered the restricted grounds of the Capitol and positioned himself near the front of a crowd confronting a police line on the West Plaza.
A short time later, he joined others in the crowd in shoving a giant metal-framed “TRUMP” sign into the line of police like a battering ram. A few seconds later, he let go of the sign and pulled a barricade away from the police line.
Maxwell later joined the front of the mob as it broke through the police line. He then remained on or near the West Plaza as rioters flooded the Capitol’s Lower and Upper West Terraces.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Atlanta and Washington field offices and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s Counterterrorism Section.
by Dave Williams | Oct 21, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Sapelo Island Ferry resumed operations Monday following the weekend collapse of a gangway that killed seven and seriously injured three others.
The incident occurred during the annual Sapelo Cultural Day celebration of the Georgia barrier island’s Gullah Geechee community, descendants of enslaved West Africans.
At least 20 people went into the water when the 80-foot gangway at Sapelo’s Marsh Landing Dock collapsed at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which operates the ferry, along with personnel from other local and federal agencies responded to the scene with boats equipped with side-scan solar and with helicopters, securing the gangway and accounting for all of the victims.
DNR officials said Sunday that the gangway was inspected last December by Crescent Equipment Co. However, the area has been hit by three tropical storms this year.
Georgia Commissioner of Natural Resources Walter Rabon said the collapse was caused by a “catastrophic failure” of the gangway’s aluminum structure. The DNR is investigating to determine the cause of the collapse, working with the Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office, the McIntosh County Fire Department, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
“Our hearts continue to go out to the victims, their families, and all of those involved in Saturday’s tragic occurrence on Sapelo Island,” Rabon said Monday. “We will allow the investigators to take their time and conduct a thorough investigation.”
Among the victims was Charles Houston of Darien, who served as a chaplain for the DNR. None of the victims were residents of Sapelo Island, which is accessible only by boat.
by Dave Williams | Oct 19, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Vice President Kamala Harris sharpened her attacks on former President Donald Trump Saturday night at a Get Out the Vote campaign rally in Atlanta.
Democrat Harris warned that Republican Trump intends to implement a menu of initiatives contained in Project 2025, published by the conservative Heritage Foundation last year. She said the list includes tax cuts that would primarily benefit the wealthy, cuts to Medicare and Social Security, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and tariffs on a host of foreign-made products that would drive up prices.
“It’s a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what Donald Trump will do if he’s elected president,” Harris told cheering supporters at the Lakewood Amphitheater.
Beyond Project 2025, Harris drew a sharp contrast between the two presidential candidates’ positions on abortion. She blamed Trump for a wave of severe abortion restrictions many states have passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion because he appointed three of the justices on the winning side.
“More than one in three women live in a state with a Trump abortion ban … every state in the South including Georgia,” she said.
Harris brought up the death two years ago of Amber Thurman, a pregnant Georgia woman who died after seeking an emergency abortion. Medical care for Thurman was delayed because her doctors were worried about violating Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.
Thurman’s parents were in the audience at Saturday night’s rally.
“I promised Amber’s mother that we will always remember her story and speak her name,” Harris said.
Harris also went after Trump for remarks the former president made recently that he considers “the enemy from within” in America more dangerous than foreign adversaries.
“He says he would use the American military to go after American citizens,” she said.
Harris also pledged to promote an “opportunity economy” that would include a $6,000 tax credit for parents in the first year of their child’s life, a tax deduction of up to $50,000 for new small businesses, expanding Medicare coverage to help cover the cost of home health care for seniors, and a middle-class tax cut for 100 million Americans.
“I come from the middle class and will never forget where I came from,” she said.
Before Harris spoke, Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Usher warmed up the crowd.
“We have an opportunity to choose a new generation of leadership for our country,” he said. “We need everyone to get out and support this campaign.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign called Harris’ appearance in Georgia a “desperate, last minute plea” to win the state’s 16 electoral votes.
“Georgia families remember what life was like four years ago – lower prices, more money in our pockets, no wars and a closed southern border,” said Morgan Ackley, Georgia communications director for Trump.
“Georgia will vote to send President Trump back to the White House this November.”
Harris did not mention illegal immigration during her 30-minute speech. Trump has made the need for border security a signature issue of his campaign.
In past interviews and speeches, Harris has criticized Trump for urging congressional Republicans to kill a bipartisan immigration reform bill earlier this year so he would be able to run on the issue.
by Dave Williams | Oct 18, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia is among only seven “battleground” states this year, where the presidential election is too close to call and the campaigns of both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are spending most of their time.
But Peach State Republicans believe they will still be in control of both the state House and Senate when the dust settles from the Nov. 5 General Assembly contests.
“It’s very difficult to maintain a majority in a 50-50 state,” said Brian Robinson, a former top aide to former GOP Gov. Nathan Deal and a consultant to Georgia House Republicans this year. “But Republicans are confident they will be able to maintain their majority.”
Democrats have been making inroads in Georgia in recent years thanks to the state’s increasingly diverse population. Ethnic minorities, including Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans, have tended to vote for Democrats.
Two years ago, Democrats gained one seat in the Georgia Senate and two in the House. During the 2020 election cycle, Georgians elected two Democrats to the U.S. Senate, and Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.
But the 2022 results still left Republicans holding 101 House seats to 79 for the Democrats, which shrunk to 78 in July of last year when then-Democratic Rep. Mesha Mainor switched to the GOP. The 2022 elections also left Republicans in firm control of the state Senate, 33-23.
Next month’s elections are expected to yield further small gains for the Democrats. In the House, Mainor’s seat – with a white voting-age population of only 34% – is likely to remain in Democrats’ hands.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus, said her party’s top target is Republican Shawn Still, R-Norcross, whose 48th Senate District has a minority voting-age population of more than 45%.
There’s also the baggage of Still having been among the Republican “fake” electors indicted in the Georgia election interference case against Trump. Still and others in that group have said they acted on the advice of GOP lawyers to preserve Trump’s legal options as he pursued a lawsuit challenging the 2020 results in Georgia.
A key reason Republicans expect to minimize their losses in the General Assembly this year despite the state’s changing demographics is that the GOP was in charge of redrawing Georgia’s congressional and legislative maps during last year’s redistricting session.
The House map pitted four sets of incumbent Democrats against each other, prompting two incumbents to decide not to seek reelection rather than oppose another Democratic incumbent. Two others ran against each other in the May primaries, and another lost her primary to a Democratic newcomer.
In the Senate, Democrats accused Republicans of partisan gerrymandering by going beyond the areas a judge had identified as in need of redrawing to reduce Black voting strength in several other districts.
“(Republicans) did whatever they could,” Parent said. “But it wasn’t foolproof.”
While the maps redrawn by the General Assembly’s Republican majorities likely will hold the Democrats to minimal gains in the state House and Senate, no changes are expected in the makeup of Georgia’s congressional delegation.
The congressional map the legislature adopted last year essentially swaps the 6th and 7th congressional districts.
It converts the Republican-leaning 6th District into a more heavily Republican 7th District that abandons increasingly diverse Gwinnett County and runs north through GOP-friendly Forsyth, Dawson, and Lumpkin counties. The old 7th District, meanwhile, has been shifted into a 6th District in heavily Democratic south and central Fulton County, southern Cobb County, eastern Douglas County, and northern Fayette County.
As a result, incumbent U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, is running for the 6th District seat, and incumbent Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, is running in the 7th District. The bottom line is expected to leave Republicans holding nine of Georgia’s 14 congressional seats to five for the Democrats.
by Dave Williams | Oct 18, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – More than 1 million Georgians have cast their ballots during the first four days of the early voting period, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office reported Friday.
“We have done it! We crossed the 1,000,000 voter mark at around 11:50am. Amazing turnout! So happy for the counties and the voters! Let’s keep it going,” Gabriel Sterling, the agency’s chief operating officer, posted on social media.
The record numbers of early voters are occurring despite the impact of Hurricane Helene late last month in South Georgia and the Augusta region. Raffensperger told reporters early this week that local election officials in the affected areas managed to overcome disruptions from the storm and got their early voting locations prepared in time for the start of early voting on schedule.
On Tuesday, the first day of the early voting period, more than 300,000 ballots were cast, starting the record momentum that has carried through the week and allowed Georgia to eclipse the 1 million mark on Friday.
Georgia is one of seven “battleground” states in this year’s presidential election, along with Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin in the Middle Atlantic and Midwest; and the Sunbelt states of North Carolina, Nevada, and Arizona.
Former President Donald Trump holds a small lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, according to a number of polls.
Early voting in Georgia will continue through Nov. 1, four days before the Nov. 5 election.
