By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and ALI SWENSON (Associated Press)
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (AP) — The Republican National Committee on Friday launched a swing state initiative to mobilize some 100,000 polling place monitors, poll workers and attorneys to serve as “election integrity” watchdogs in November — an effort that immediately drew concerns that it could lead to harassment of election workers and undermine trust in the vote.
The RNC says its plan will help voters have faith in the electoral process and ensure their votes matter. Yet, as former President Donald Trump and his allies continue to spread false claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud, the effort also sets the stage for a repeat of Trump’s efforts to undermine the results — a gambit that ultimately led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump allies already have signaled that they might not accept the results if he loses to President Joe Biden.
The RNC has said its new effort will focus on stopping “Democrat attempts to circumvent the rules.” The party will deploy monitors to observe every step of the election process, create hotlines for poll watchers to report perceived problems and escalate those issues by taking legal action.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said Friday that the committee will place election integrity directors and counsels in 15 states, including the most hotly contest battlegrounds, and work with state parties to set up similar programs in the other states.
“What we need to ensure is integrity in our electoral process,” RNC Co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, said during the kickoff event in Bloomfield Hills, in a suburban county that is crucial for winning Michigan. “We can never go back and repeat 2020, but we can learn the lessons from 2020.”
She said most of the RNC is currently focused on the committee’s election integrity program, which she called “one of its kind.”
Both parties have a long history of organizing supporters to serve as poll monitors, and the Democratic National Committee said it plans its own volunteer recruitment effort. Several election officials in presidential swing states said they feel this kind of transparency and engagement is one of the best ways to help skeptics feel confident in the many safeguards baked into the electoral process.
Yet the language surrounding the RNC’s effort and how it’s being implemented could present broader concerns should it evolve beyond normal political party organizing, said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who serves as executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
“To do it in a way that feeds your voters with the idea that the election is going to be stolen, that prepares them to be angry if their candidate loses — that can be very dangerous,” Becker said.
Trump pushed false claims of election fraud in 2016 and 2020 and has continued to predict a rigged election if he loses this year. During a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, he said of Democrats, “the only way they can beat us is to cheat.”
“Don’t let them cheat,” he said. “Don’t let them do anything.”
RNC leadership — which Trump handpicked in a major overhaul of the committee earlier this year — has followed his lead in forecasting the potential for foul play in this year’s election. Lara Trump qualified her answer on CNN earlier this month when asked if she’d accept the results.
“I can tell you, yes, we will accept the results of this election if we feel that it is free, fair and transparent,” she said. “And we are working overtime to ensure that indeed that happens.”
Whatley said Friday that the RNC is focused on three priorities this cycle: pushing for election security laws such as voter ID requirements, ensuring there are observers monitoring the voting process and speaking up about what it calls “election integrity” issues.
Democratic National Committee spokesperson Alex Floyd said the DNC, “alongside our partners at the state and local level, won’t let MAGA Republicans get away with these baseless attacks on our democracy, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that all Americans can make their voice heard at the ballot box.”
The DNC said it has invested tens of millions of dollars into expanding its “I Will Vote” initiative, which includes funding efforts to support mail voting and other voting access issues in swing states.
The RNC’s kickoff event took place at the headquarters of the Oakland County GOP, one of Michigan’s most influential local parties. Oakland County is an affluent Detroit suburb that for decades was one of Michigan’s premier bellwether counties.
While the county holds the largest number of Republican voters in the state, it has shifted increasingly Democratic in recent years, and Donald Trump has lost the county in both of his previous campaigns.
The RNC has focused many of its challenges ahead of the election in Michigan, a state Trump narrowly won in 2016 but lost to Biden in 2020. A review by Republican lawmakers found there was no widespread fraud in that year’s election and that Biden legitimately won the state. That aligns with reviews, recounts and audits in the other battleground states where Trump disputed his loss, all of which affirmed Biden’s victory.
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Associated Press writers Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta, Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report. Swenson reported from New York.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland will not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress because his refusal to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case “did not constitute a crime,” the Justice Department said Friday.
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Justice Department official cited the department’s longstanding policy not to prosecute for contempt of Congress officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.
The House voted Wednesday to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the audio recordings of Biden’s interview with a special counsel, which the White House has accused Republicans of wanting only so they can chop them up and use them for political purposes.
On the last day to comply with the Republicans’ subpoena for the audio, the White House blocked the release by invoking executive privilege.
The 216-207 vote fell along party lines, with Republicans coalescing behind the contempt effort despite reservations among some of the party’s more centrist members. Only one Republican, Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, voted against it.
Garland is the third attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress. He has defended the Justice Department, saying officials have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the committees about special counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents investigation, including a transcript of Biden’s interview with him.
PARKLAND, Florida — With a groan, the classroom building where 17 people died in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting began to come down Friday morning in chunks of metal, concrete, and dust.
Two white tents stationed about 100 yards away protected victims’ family members from the sun during the scheduled demolition, while a yellow excavator clawed away at the building’s corner. Some filmed it on their phones. Some cried. Outside the fence, former students, teachers and neighbors came to watch, stopping by on bicycles, sitting in lawn chairs.
For years they had known this day would come, but still could not have predicted how it would feel.
“To me, whether the building’s here or whether it’s not, I will always remember this space,” Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, was killed in the building, told reporters after the initial demolition began Friday. “I will always remember the horrific images in my head that I saw walking through that building, knowing the pain that Alex was going through when he was shot and murdered by the Parkland school shooter. So there’s no closure for me.”
The 1200 building has served many purposes over the years. It was used as evidence of the shooting itself during criminal trials for the shooter and the accused failures of Scot Peterson, the school resource officer. Later, politicians and officials toured its halls to better understand the urgent need for school safety and the ways things can go wrong. It became a constant reminder for all who passed of what they went through and all that they lost. But it was also a reminder of the place where 17 people once went to school, where, the day before Feb. 14, Alex Schachter was still in band and 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff still played soccer.
What appears to be student work can be seen on the wall of teacher Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre where 17 people were killed and another 17 were injured. Beigel was one of the teachers who died. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
So when the excavator began to claw all of it away about 8:30 a.m. Friday, emotions were strong, and mixed.
“I just kept thinking about my daughter Alyssa who was murdered in that building,” said her mother, Lori Alhadeff, now the chair of the Broward School Board, a few hours into the demolition Friday. “When the (excavator) hit the building, it honestly just ignited that pain even further.”
The victims’ families were invited to hammer off a piece themselves if they chose. Officials plan to complete the project before the school’s 3,300 students return in August from summer vacation, though it could be sooner than that. Most of the current students were in elementary school when the shooting happened.
For former students who were at the school at the time, the demolition is a long time coming, but also a bittersweet one.
“I’m really, really anxious,” said Gaby, 22, a high school junior at the time of the shooting who asked that her full name not be used. “And in my heart, it’s really, really sad. I just feel so sad. And I think that’s just because I’m sad from the 14th of February, and that sad never goes away, unfortunately. That’s all I can say.”
Gaby said she almost didn’t come, but friends kept talking about it. She ended up standing across the street Friday morning in cow slippers and pajama pants.
“It’s this big constant,” she said. ” … I wanted it gone the moment it happened. But the fact that it stayed here, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I really really needed that sore thumb sometimes. To cling to a moment in my life where everything got turned upside down.”
A woman clears debris from a memorial garden as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Nearby, Dylan Persaud, who was a freshman at the school in 2018, also watched as the destruction began. Persaud had been standing near the freshman building when the shooting started that day. He lost seven long-time friends and his geography teacher, Scott Beigel, in the shooting.
“It’s the period to the end of the story,” he said. “It’s not closure, but it’s an end.”
For Persaud, there is a sense of relief to seeing the building come down and knowing that those who pass don’t have to see it anymore. He hopes that the space becomes a personal memorial for each of the 17.
Standing in front of reporters, Brian Lequerique, a 2020 graduate from MSD, got choked up.
“Normally I’m not really an emotional person,” he said. But “it gets very emotional at times.”
For Lequerique, who often drives by, watching the building fall brought an end to a very difficult chapter. But it also brought about terrifying memories of being in the Spanish hallway during the shooting.
“It brings you back to that day,” Lequerique said. “I remember the sounds of the fire alarms, screaming and the police coming through the halls with their guns drawn.”
“Six years later I’ve gotten better,” he added. “But driving by brings it all back.”
Some former teachers also came to watch. Joanne Wallace taught special education at Stoneman Douglas at the time of the shooting and for five years after. With mixed emotions she had returned to show her support for the families.
“I wish that more people could see what’s happening,” Wallace said. “But I want to show the families that we still care.”
The building had been kept entirely preserved to serve as evidence at the shooter’s 2022 penalty trial. Jurors toured its bullet-pocked and blood-stained halls, but spared him a death sentence. He is serving a term of life without parole. After the trial, the building was opened up so family members themselves could walk through, as well as visitors.
Many have described the inside as a time capsule of Feb. 14, 2018. Textbooks and laptops sat open on desks, and wilted Valentine’s Day flowers, deflated balloons and abandoned teddy bears were scattered amid broken glass. Those objects have now been removed.
For the families, the building’s painful reminders served an important purpose. They brought politicians and other officials to bear witness. Over the past year, they have led Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress, school officials, police officers and about 500 other invitees from around the country on tours of the building.
They showed them what went wrong, and how bullet-resistant glass in door windows, a better alarm system and doors that lock from the inside could have saved lives.
Max Schachter has now walked through the building over 10 times. He still doesn’t feel like there was enough time, that more people could have — should have — seen it.
“It’s excruciatingly painful to see Alex’s blood all over the chair, and to see how he died,” he said Friday. “But what also is upsetting is that I wasn’t able to bring more people, more officials through that building.”
Not every parent had wanted to witness the demolition.
“I absolutely will not be there,” Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jaime, was killed, had told the South Florida Sun Sentinel earlier in the week. “You know what, I spent enough time in that building over the past year, walking congressional leaders and law enforcement leaders through it to teach the lessons. I’ve been in the spot where my daughter was killed … There is no closure for me because no matter what happens at that building I still visit her at the cemetery. There’s closure for community, but there’s no closure for myself or the other 16.”
For those who had to still attend the school and look out at the 1200 building, the painful reminders were hard to navigate each day.
Melissa Falkowski, the sponsor of the MSD school newspaper, The Eagle Eye, hid 19 students in a closet on Feb. 14, 2018.
Six years later, still teaching at the school, she hopes to see the demolition bring about a fresh start for the new set of students to attend MSD.
“We’ve been working in the shadow of this building,” Falkowski said. “The students park in that lot and have to walk past it every day … for six years we’ve been witnessing a monument to mass murder. It needed to happen a long time ago, but it finally happened today.”
Eric Garner, who teaches broadcast journalism at the school, said that each year, students have fainter memories of the tragedy, many having been only in elementary school at the time. His students used to never even talk about going to “shoot” video, but now things are slowly becoming more normal.
“It’s probably healthier for us,” Garner said. “But it is absolutely a mixed feeling. It’s almost that we need the students to understand it sometimes.”
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The northeast stairwell and a portion of Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom are exposed in this Friday, June 14, 2024, photo. Beigel, was killed in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
What appears to be student work can be seen on the wall of teacher Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom can be seen as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Beigel, was killed in the 2018 shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The northeast stairwell and a portion of Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom are exposed in this Friday, June 14, 2024, photo. Beigel, was killed in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The word “GEOGRAPHY” can be seen on the board in what was teacher Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Beigel, was killed in the 2018 shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A woman clears debris from a memorial garden as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Tony Montalto walks with his wife, Jennifer, and son, Anthony, on campus just before the start of demolition of the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The Alhadeff’s daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Workers prepare for demolition of the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Workers pass the east entrance of the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the door the gunman used to enter the building and perpetuate the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Debbie Hixon and her son, Corey, arrive before the start of the demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. Hixon’s husband and Corey’s father, Christopher, was killed in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Broward County is not alone in taking down a school building after a mass shooting. In Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary School was torn down after the 2012 shooting and replaced. In Texas, officials closed Robb Elementary in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting there and plan to demolish it. Colorado’s Columbine High had its library demolished after the 1999 shooting.
U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, an alumnus of the school who also led many on tours of the building, said in a statement Friday that the community was forever changed by the shooting.
“I never thought I’d see the high school where I graduated from turned into a war zone. What I’ve seen in that building is truly haunting — windows with bullet holes, homework scattered everywhere, blood in the hallway,” Moskowitz said. “The people of Parkland will no longer have to pass by this horrific reminder of our grief. The families of those innocent lives taken that day will never be able to move on, just move forward.”
The Broward County School Board has not decided what the building will be replaced with. Teachers suggested a practice field for the band, Junior ROTC and other groups, connected by a landscaped pathway to a nearby memorial that was erected a few years ago. Several of the students killed belonged to the band or Junior ROTC.
Alhadeff wants the grounds turned into a legacy soccer field, in memory of Alyssa, a soccer player. Many parents agreed that they want the site turned into a memorial.
Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina died that day, said he was worried about not knowing exactly what will happen to the space left behind by the building. He hopes it reflects the lives his daughter and others lived, not something that “memorializes the day they were taken.”
Even within his own family, reactions to the demolition were mixed, reflecting the larger constellation of emotions felt by the community. His wife had grown attached to the building. His son was afraid that people will now forget.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Montalto recalled all the times he drove past with Gina, including before she entered high school, during the initial craze over the movie “High School Musical.”
“She’d say, ‘Look, Daddy, there’s my high school musical,’” he said, tearing up, while the groans and creaking of the building coming apart could be heard behind him. “I always hear her voice when we drive down this road.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
When: 9:30 p.m. CT Saturday Where: Lumen Field Stream: Apple TV Season Pass Radio: KSTP-AM 1500 ESPN Weather: 57 degrees, 60 percent chance of rain Betting line: Seattle minus-160; draw plus-300; MNUFC plus-390
Series history: The Loons have lost all eight MLS matches they have played in Seattle since 2017, including the heartbreaking 3-2 defeat in the 2020 Western Conference final.
Flashback: With the Loons leading 2-0 in the second half of the 2020 West final, MLS organizers started to communicate staging for where Minnesota players would accept the trophy. Those plans obviously were scrapped when Seattle scored three goals in the final 15-plus minutes to win and advance to MLS Cup. So close, yet so far away.
Form: MNUFC (8-3-5, 29 points) put together a gritty 1-1 draw with FC Dallas last week despite 11 players out. A handful of key reinforcements return for this match. Seattle (4-7-6, 18 points) remained inconsistent last weekend with a 2-1 loss to struggling Sporting Kansas City.
Absences: Dayne St. Clair, Tani Oluwaseyi, Alejandro Bran and Carlos Harvey (international duties) are away. Joseph Rosales (red card suspension) is out. D.J. Taylor (hamstring) is doubtful. Micky Tapias (U.S. green card) is probable.
Projected XI: In a 5-3-2 formation, FW Sang Bin Jeong, FW Teemu Pukki; CM Hassani Dotson, CM Robin Lod, CM Wil Trapp; LWB Devin Padelford, CB Micky Tapias, CB Michael Boxall, CB Kervin Arriaga, RWB Caden Clark; GK Clint Irwin
Look ahead: Don’t be surprised if MNUFC stand pat with its two Designated Players (Lod and Pukki) through the summer transfer window but looks to add prospects via openings within the Under-22 Initiative.
Stat: Seattle leads MLS with six red cards this season, including backup Reed Baker-Whiting being sent off in the Kansas City loss. He is out Saturday. The Loons have had two reds this season (Joseph Rosales and Micky Tapias).
Scouting report: New Sounders forward Pedro de la Vega has not been able to stay healthy and hasn’t played in MLS since May 18. He was questionable going into last week with a hamstring injury. That leaves Seattle with a handful of familiar players, and that appears to be part of the problem. They look in need of a deeper roster refresh.
Prediction: Given MNUFC’s abysmal track record in Seattle and the Sounders’ current poor record at home (1-1-5), now is the time for the Loons to finally get a win in Washington. Loons win 2-1.
