U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde has successfully inserted language into a House appropriations bill to officially kill any efforts to rename Lake Lanier and Buford Dam. Both are located in Clyde’s northeast Georgia 9th congressional district.
The Army Corps of Engineers earlier this year said it was beginning the process of renaming both under a mandate in a 2020 defense funding bill that said military assets named after Confederates should get new monikers. But after local backlash, the Corps said it was shelving the renaming process for Lake Lanier and adjacent Buford Dam indefinitely.
Although there is no indication those talks have or will be revived, the Athens Republican’s amendment would erase any gray area.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Politico writes that Clyde’s amendment to the energy and water development appropriations bill would prevent federal dollars from being used to rename facilities built by the Army Corps that carry the names of people with ties to the Confederacy. It does not block the renaming process already underway for military bases.
Still, there is some consternation from fellow Republicans about Clyde bringing the issue up at all, Politico wrote.
The Clyde amendment was approved by the House Appropriations Committee last week, but will need to make it through the full House and Senate before becoming official.
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Credit: Pete Marovich/The New York Times
Credit: Pete Marovich/The New York Times
BOOSTED. This weekend’s roundup of White House hopefuls that Ralph Reed called a “testosterone booster shot” for GOP presidential candidates instead became the latest in a long line of campaign events that centered on Donald Trump.
The former president was showered with applause at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual convention as he called himself the “most pro-life president ever.” He also praised the downfall of Roe v. Wade, overturned last year after he appointed three conservative jurists to the bench.
Most of the other speakers at the Washington event did their best to avoid mentioning Trump at all. The exception was former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was booed by some in the crowd when he said Trump “let us down.”
(Christie told them they can “boo all you want” but that Christians were taught to “take responsibility for what they do.” Later, he said the pro-Trump crowd that flocks to the group’s events “need to hear the truth, too.”)
Reed, whose political advocacy in Georgia stretches back roughly four decades, acknowledged to attendees that some critics see his group as a “cult of personality” around Trump. Then he dismissed the backlash.
“The truth about us,” he said, “we are a cult of only one personality. There is only one person we worship and that is Jesus Christ of Nazareth who is our Lord and savior.”
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Credit: Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DARK DAYS. After a small group of Nazi sympathizers paraded outside of synagogues in Macon and East Cobb with Swastika flags over the weekend, community leaders and politicians spoke out against the brazen antisemitism.
U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock condemned the hateful acts, and Gov. Brian Kemp called them shameful. Local and state leaders chimed in. And Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, added his voice to the chorus.
“In the face of rising antisemitic incidents, it is inspiring to see communities like Macon, Georgia unite against this visceral hate,” said Emhoff, who is Jewish. “Together, we must continue to speak out against these poisonous antisemitic threats and condemn hate wherever it exists.”
And, like previous acts of hate targeting Georgia Jews, the lawmakers pushing for a stalled measure to make antisemitism part of the state’s hate crimes law said the pro-Nazi demonstrations should serve as a new impetus to pass the bill.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
State Rep. John Carson, the Cobb Republican who is an author of the measure, said “he will continue fighting for legislation that protects the Jewish community.”
“If they knew there was a consequence that any crime they commit would be enhanced under the hate crime statute and maybe they’ll think twice,” added Democratic state Rep. Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Legislature.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
OSSOFF OUT AND ABOUT. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., will cut the ribbon on a new Columbus field office this morning and then head to a peach orchard in Ft. Valley to update local leaders on his push for federal disaster assistance for Georgia peach farmers. Georgia lost 90% of its peach crop after an unexpected freeze in March.
We’ll keep you posted on Ossoff’s and other congressional members’ movements as they travel the state this week.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
COP CITY CLASH. DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced Friday that she will withdraw her office from prosecuting cases related to protests over Atlanta’s public safety training center, which is planned for DeKalb County.
The AJC’s Rosana Hughes and Sara Gregory write that Boston did not say specifically what differences her office has with the other agencies involved in the cases, some of which charge protesters with domestic terrorism.
But your Jolters have noted that Boston has been noticeably quiet throughout the controversy while others, including Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, have vocally defended pursuing the weighty charges. Domestic terrorism convictions could lead to decades in prison.
One disagreement between Boston and Carr surfaced during a Board of Public Safety meeting in April, when Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Michael Register noted that Boston wanted to drop the charges against an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, who was swept up in a mass arrest of protestors at the site in March.
The SPLC said the attorney was there as an official observer to document potential violations of protestors’ rights. Carr disagreed with Boston that the charges should be dropped, and the attorney’s case is still pending.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The U.S. House and Senate are out for a two-week recess for the July Fourth holiday.
- President Biden and Vice President Harris will make a major high-speed internet infrastructure announcement from the White House.
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Credit: Sophie Park/The New York Times
Credit: Sophie Park/The New York Times
RFK JR’S GEORGIA CONNECTION. The same Georgia-based operatives who just made news for taking on embattled U.S. Rep. George Santos as a client are now working for the longshot Democratic presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., too.
Rolling Stone connected the pro-Kennedy political committee “Heal the Divide” to Alpharetta-based RTA Strategy, a campaign and PAC regulatory reporting firm, through federal campaign finance records. Since RTA Strategy usually works on the Republican side of the aisle, the article speculated that former President Donald Trump or his allies are helping prop up Kennedy’s run.
In addition to Santos and Kennedy, RTA has lately handled the books for political committees tied to prominent Georgia Republicans like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Herschel Walker. Kennedy, the anti-vaccine activist whose campaign has been promoted by Elon Musk, trails far behind Biden in polls and is considered a longshot.
Jason Boles and Rick Thompson are the principals at RTA. Thompson is also a member of the Georgia ethics commission.
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LAWYERS GALORE. Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman is adding seven Georgia-based lawyers to its team, including Alex Kauffman, the general counsel to both the Georgia GOP and 6th Congressional District Republican Party. Kauffman is also a familiar face to Capitol regulars, since he served in the Office of Executive Counsel for former Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Along with Kauffman in Georgia, the firm has also picked up Phil Thomas, the former chief counsel to the North Carolina GOP, as well as Drew Stokesbary, the Republican leader in Washington State House.
The firm was previously known as Chalmers & Adams and is headed up by prominent GOP lawyer Doug Chalmers.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. Good help is hard to find. So it’s not an overstatement to say that Lauren Kiefer, a candidate for mayor of Brookhaven, hit the jackpot with Pepper, her 18-month-old American cocker spaniel, seen here hard at work.
Pepper, who is officially known as Peppermint Bark, also enjoys running after balls, stealing socks out of the laundry hamper, and barking at baby strollers rolling past the house. Even though campaigns typically focus on kissing babies, instead of barking at babies, with a face like this we still have to declare Pepper our Dog of the Day. Congrats!
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
