Newcomer Jon Ossoff Narrowly Misses Outright Win and Heads Into June Runoff With a Wide Margin
Forced runoff. Democrat Jon Ossoff narrowly missed winning a heavily conservative House district in suburban Atlanta on Wednesday. He will face Karen Handel, the top Republican vote-getter, in a June 20 runoff election. Ossoff, age 30, received 48.1% of the vote, just short of the 50% needed to win the seat, in an 18-candidate field. The special election is to fill the seat vacated by Tom Price, whom Trump named secretary of Health and Human Services. Price was re-elected in November with 62% of the vote in the 6th District, which has been reliably Republican since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won the seat in 1978. The contest threw a scare into Republicans in a special congressional election that was seen as an early referendum on Trump, who urged voter to reject Ossoff.
No Trump jobs for Americans. Trump’s golf club in Westchester County, New York, is asking permission to hire more foreign workers to be waiters and waitresses. The jobs pay $14.08 an hour. The workers are being sought under the federal H-2 visa program, which permits American employers to hire foreign laborers under temporary work visas as long as no qualified US workers want the jobs. The golf course is located just 18 miles north of New York City’s Bronx borough, where the unemployment rate is 6.5%. Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order directing our federal agencies to look at immigration laws to promote hiring Americans.
Wrong-way armada. Trump said last week that he sent an “armada” as part of his tough talk to North Korea. But the aircraft carrier strike group was actually near Australia and was going farther away from, not toward, North Korea.
No ethics required. Trump can issue ethics waivers for any reason under an executive order he issued and never disclose those waivers. Walter Shaub, who runs the Office of Government Ethics, said he has “no idea how many waivers have been issued.”